


Seeing Sky

by Vivagrazia



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Brainwashing, Bullies, College Matt, Gen, Growing Up, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Episode: s01e13 Daredevil, Quake!Skye, Rising Tide Skye, St. Agnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-03-23 11:35:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3766627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vivagrazia/pseuds/Vivagrazia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three instances Skye and Matt Murdock meet over time, starting at St. Agnes Orphanage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ninjas and Chocolate

"Wow, look at that. No Eyes is back!"

"Of course he's back. Who the hell would want a kid that can't see? That's like buying a broken toy. Stupid."

"Look, he's still got his weirdo stick!"

Matt ignores them. He keeps walking. Keeps putting his cane in front of him as though nothing is wrong, that he needs the beat of the wood hitting the ground to not run into something.

But it's just not true.

Through sound, through his other senses, he can feel the butterfly just to the left landing on a leaf. He can feel the stray dog digging through trash for scraps two blocks over and one of the younger orphan girls peeking around the corner as she listens to the boys mocking Matt.

He can even feel his assailants. The biggest kid that's probably the oldest, maybe fourteen, he's doing most of the taunting. Matt knows him from before he left with Stick, people call him Bones. He has two followers. Younger, twelve of thirteen. Matt's never learned their names.

He knows he could kick these guys' teeth in. But Stick said not to show anyone what he could do.

_Stick's not here anymore, though._

And that's also why he doesn't feel any urge to do it. Matt feels empty.

So he keeps walking. And ignoring. Though their voices are loud in his ears, it doesn't mean he has to listen, right?

But his cane is ripped away from him.

"Look what I got!" sings Bones.

"That's mine. Give it back!" Matt demands. He's probably not very threatening. To them, he's just some defect kid.

Bones gives it a flip. Matt is still determined to redeem himself from making Stick leave. He hides his true abilities and acts defenseless. So though Matt feels a deep rage, he waits. Like what meditation teaches, the last thing Stick told him to work on. Waiting.

Before he waits very long though he feels the pitter-patter of light shoes touching the ground, coming fast and swift.

"Give it back!" shouts the little girl as she runs towards them, putting herself between Matt and Bones. "Give him back his blind stick."

"Get out of here, Poots," Bones dismisses her.

"You're gonna make fun of a blind kid for being brought back? What's your excuse Bones? You barely lasted a week at your last place!"

Matt feels the kid get angry. He scrunches up his nose as his breathing becomes harsh. "You're one to talk Mary Sue! You've been to more foster homes than anyone and you're only nine years old!"

She's hurt. The words wound her in some way, but the girl stays wild. It fuels her voice. "Never said I was perfect. But I'm not the one picking on blind kids. Now give it back!"

Bones nods to Matt. "You gonna let a little  _girl_  fight your battles for you, huh Murdock?"

Matt doesn't say anything as Mary Sue crosses her arms. "It's fitting," she says. "Because you're about as smart as one."

Oh. That makes the kid  _really_  angry.

He grabs the front of Mary Sue's shirt and lifts her tiny form off the ground. Matt almost breaks his code, almost defends. Instead, he lets them think he  _heard_  the scuffle. But if they go too far… Matt's not going to let some kid get hurt for him.

"Let her go!" Matt shrieks. He hears Mary's heart and though it's fast, she's not as scared as he thinks she'd be.

"You want a Knuckle Sandwich Mary Sue?" asks Bones. "Knuckles would happy to make one for you."

One of his companions cracks his fingers in preparation.

Mary Sue scoffs. "Oh, you mean _James_?"

"My name's Knuckles now!" says James as he steps forward.

Mary shrugs, Bones' fingers still entwining with her shirt. "You're right. Everyone remembers you getting nicknamed. But do they remember back when  _Bones_  was  _Bertram_?"

The kids in the back tilt their heads in what Matthew thinks must be confusion. Bones' heart goes twice as fast.

"What's she talking about Bones?" asks the smallest kid.

"She's… nothin'!" he says defensively and gets real close to Mary Sue's ear. "You shut up or I'll make you eat those words!"

 _"_ _Or,"_  she says pointedly, "you give this kid back his stick thing and I won't make sure everybody knows your real name. Bertram."

The words were spoken so quietly it was assumed only those two could hear.

He throws her down backwards.

"C'mon boys, lets go somewhere else." Bones throws Matt's cane right onto Mary Sue, whose arms are still beside herself from the shove so it lands across her belly. "No fun when the kid can't even see what we're doing anyhow…"

"But-" starts James, though Bones yells "let's go!" and the two smaller boys know better than to disagree with their leader. They walk back inside.

Mary Sue dusts herself off as she gets up with Matt's cane. "Here," she says, offering it to him. "Sorry about that. Those guys are jerks."

Matt blinks. "Why'd you help me?"

"Well, let's just say I know how rough it is when you're… 'not a good fit'," she says. She makes quotation symbols with her hands and he can tell the exact moment that she realizes he shouldn't be able to see them, her hands stunting to a stop in the air.

"Ok. I can take care of myself though."

Matt turns around. He doesn't want friends. He doesn't need friends, and he especially doesn't need some little nine-year-old hanging out around him.

The girl scoffs loud and grabs his shoulder.

" _Excuse_ me? I just saved your butt and all you have to say is 'I can take care of myself.' How about a  _thank you Mary Sue_ , or,  _you're awesome Mary Sue_." She grimaces. "Well you can like, leave the 'Sue' part out. And 'Mary' now that I think about it. Boy, I hate my name…"

"How did you know  _his_ name?" Matt asks curiously.

"The computer," Mary says. "The nuns got all our information on there. Sometimes I like to go digging… it's fun," she says. "You're Matt, right?"

He hesitates. "Yeah."

"Sorry you're blind," she says suddenly, and it stalls him for a second. People aren't usually so blunt.

"Um… actually, my mentor said I was born lucky," he tells her, followed by another wave of grief left by Stick leaving him.

She grins. "That's cool. I don't think I was. But I hear you got to make your own luck."

"Oh. That could be true too."

She sighs. "Well, I guess if you aren't gonna thank me for my awesome saving skills, I think I'll go to dinner before I'm late. Sister Barbara isn't mad at me right now and I think I'm gonna try seeing how long I can keep it that way. Nice meeting you?"

She extends a hand but quickly becomes flustered when she realizes why he doesn't take it. Though instead of just dropping it as most people would, she reaches forwards and grabs his free hand, shaking it hardily.

"See you around," she says, waving, and runs off into the building.

* * *

Mary watches Matt Murdock as he slips away again. She knows what it's like, just having to get away. She has a special hole near the back part of the building real close to the fence that she can wriggle under super easy. She likes just walking around the neighborhood sometimes by herself.

Matt doesn't do any of that though. He just walks out. Sure, he's a couple years older than her and the big kids do get more privileges (they're allowed to walk home from school, Mary's really excited for that) but he's  _blind_. He shouldn't go off on his own, right? Why does no one care where he's going?

She knows he doesn't have many friends. She could tell he didn't want her to be his friend the first time they talked, but it lessened the blow once she realized he didn't want anyone around. It's not like she's that close to his age anyway, but still. She's mature for nine.

Anyway… curiosity gets the better of her and she goes to her super secret hole and follows him.

He goes pretty far. Out of their more suburban alleys and onto streets with businesses. He walks fast too, but he's got his stick.

It's when some stupid kid on a skateboard comes that she nearly shouts. He's going way too fast and not stopping and heading right for Matt!

And then it gets weird.

Matt just ducks away. Moves to the side. Really gracefully, like way more gracefully then she woulda been! As though he could not only see, but  _knew_  where it was going to end up before it even came close.

Mary realizes she's covering her mouth in shock, still pretty far back from him on the sidewalk, and has to get her feet moving again from their frozen state to keep up with him.

He ends up going to some ratty old building in the end. A place that used to be used for boxing.

Mary's not stupid. She's heard about Matt Murdock way before she got into the nuns' computers. Kids raised in Hell's Kitchen made a big deal about him coming to the orphanage. He was blinded saving a person, like a real hero!

His dad was a boxer. He died right after a match. And this looks like…

Well, it looks like the place his old man kicked the bucket.

So she figures it's a sentimental thing. Mary still doesn't feel good about leaving the blind kid on his own but…

_Whack! Whack! Whack!_

"What was  _that_?" Mary whispers to herself when she hears the noises. She decides a peak inside won't hurt.

She curls around a wall and watches Matt from the corner.

He goes at the bag like a viper or something. Woosh, bang, wham! He moves super quick like the roadrunner on Saturday morning cartoons and seems to sense the bag as it goes back and forth.

It's crazy! It's amazing! It's –

Probably impossible for a blind dude.

Matt suddenly places a hand on the bag, stilling it. He stands still too.

"Who's there?" he calls out. Mary instinctively crouches back into the corner, troublesome nature reminding her to hide. He looks _right_  at her. "I know you're there!"

She picks herself and stands tall. "Are you even  _blind_?" she exclaims.

"Mary?" he asks.

"Uh huh," she says, walking out from her hiding place. She becomes very bold at his stupor, coming forward and grabbing the glasses right off his face. "You're not blind, are you? You can see!"

"No I can't," he defends quickly. She's never seen his actual eyes before. They are a little off focus… but in her general direction. And he could be faking.

"You can't be a ninja if you can't see! And dude, you are a ninja."

"I'm not!"

"Yes you are, you have all this super secret know how! I just watched you.  _And_ I saw you get out of the way of that skateboard."

He just grimaces.

Oh yeah, she's got him.

"So where'd you learn to be a ninja?" She gasps in excitement. "Was your boxer dad really a ninja? Was he just pretending to be a boxer? Were you like the  _karate kid_? That's so cool!"

"I'm not a ninja," Matt protests. "And you shouldn't be here. You're too young to be walking around the city!"

"Says the kid who was my age when he saved a guy's life! Plus the nuns never notice anything…"

"Well it's still not safe. Go home, Mary."

"So why don't you tell anyone what you can do?" she asks, completely ignoring his order. It was silly of him to think he could order her around anyway. "You could have kicked those bullies' butts!"

"I'm not supposed to," he says.

"Why not?"

"I'm just not."

Well that's stupid.

"That's stupid."

He smiles. A little. Sorta. "Yeah, it kinda is."

"Can you teach me how to be a ninja?"

He sighs. "No."

" _That's_  lame. So was your dad not a very good ninja? Is that why he died?"

Matt looks like he's been hit and Mary could have whacked herself.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I never even knew my parents! Sometimes I forget how much you guys loved them."

It's not that, exactly. It's just… she used to daydream that she had the perfect family. A funny dad and a loving mom, and they'd sit down at dinner and laugh and talk and eat.

Mary realized it's easier to think they were mean. Cruel people who left her there. She's sorta numb to bad things said about parents after all that imagining.

Even though he nods at her explanation Mary thinks he might be crying.

"Here," she says, handing him back the glasses she'd snatched. He puts them on. "So… I found a dollar on the way here. Wanna split a Milky Way?"

* * *

About twenty minutes later they are outside of a Convenient Food Mart, sitting on a stoop with half of a Milky Way bar in each of their hands.

Matt can't believe he was so stupid. He's never let anyone in on his secret. He can feel stuff and it's never an issue. But he cared about Stick more than he can admit and it let his guard down. Enough for a girl, a  _nine-year-old_  girl, to follow him to his dad's place.

That was supposed to be his place.

And he doesn't even like Milky Ways.

She takes a bite into the chocolate bar and then starts talking, which seems like poor planning. "So I'm guessing you don't want me telling nobody about this?" she mumbles.

He fingers the candy nervously. He shakes his head.

"I won't," she says with a smile and a gulp of her food. "I'm great at keeping secrets. Chrissy Elkridge told me something two years ago and I haven't squealed yet! And trust me, it's a doozy."

He laughs. "I'll take your word for it, Mary Sue."

"Ugh," she groans. "Just Mary please. Or nothing. You know what? Nothing is good. Call me Nothing."

"You should probably have a name."

"But my name is  _horrible_."

Well. She's not wrong.

He shrugs. "So change it."

"What? You can't just change your name!"

"Says who?"

"Says… I dunno, the person who made up giving people names… maybe Jesus!"

Matt laughs. "Jesus never said that."

"Well I dunno. I have a hard time listening to what Jesus says, most of the nuns make God sound really mean."

Mathew doesn't like that. God's what gets him through some days. He knows that she probably looks down on Him because the nuns are so abrasive about it though. He can't really blame her.

"If you could change your name, what would you change it to?" he asks.

Mary scrunches up her face. "I dunno. Something cool. I like 'S' names, I think."

"Like Sue?" he asks wryly.

"No!"

"Sara?" he suggests.

"Oh gosh no. Sara Wilkens? She's a ten year old and such a bitch."

"Whoa, Mary!"

"What? She is!"

"That's not a nice word." He's no stranger to swearing, but it sounds wrong coming from her.

Mary crosses her arms. "Perfect for her though…" she grumbles and he finds himself smiling. "So, you're definitely blind, right?"

This girl has a knack for bluntness.

"Yeah, definitely."

"But you can sorta see?" she asks.

"I can… well, my other senses work really well. So I can 'see' but not with my eyes."

"Is that what your mentor meant about you being born lucky? Because… no offense, but a blind kid with no parents doesn't really seem lucky to me."

Matt's breath hitches in his throat.

It doesn't seem that lucky to him either.

"They told me I shouldn't feel sad because of my disability… everyone did. But I… I do. Seeing was beautiful. I'd give anything to see the sky again."

Mary's head goes downward and he can tell he's made her sad.

He feels bad only for a moment before her head perks up with a gasp.

"The sky! Sky!" she exclaims. He thinks she may be losing it.

"Yeah… It's not something you can really hear, and anyway, I can't see colors or anything the way  _I_ see."

"Exactly! So my name should be Sky."

He just blinks at first, because he's not entirely sure how she connected the two. "Yeah, that'd be pretty."

Her heart's beating fast with what seems to be excitement. She turns to him. "Ok so give me your hands."

"What?"

"Just give me your hands!"

He looks down at them. One has the uneaten half of the Milky Way. It's started melting onto his fingers.

"What the heck?" asks Mary. Or, Sky now. Maybe. "Why aren't you eating it? It's candy!"

He grimaces. "I don't actually like this kind."

She slaps her hand to her face, pretty over-dramatically. "Oh for Pete's sake. Well don't waste it!" She grabs the chocolate bar and stuffs the whole half into her mouth. It's almost impressive.

"Eow ginnee wore hans," she says.

"What?"

She chomps quickly and swallows down the candy in a massive gulp. Her lips are coated in chocolate she promptly licks at.

"Now gimme your hands!" she exclaims.

Hesitantly he offers them up and she takes them greedily. Then, she slaps them onto her cheeks.

"There!" she exclaims. "You're seeing the sky!"

"Huh?"

"Well, you said you see with your other senses. You're feeling me, hearing me, and now I'm Sky. So you're seeing the Sky!"

"Hm," is all he manages at first. It's ridiculous, because the sky is the thing he's dreamt of seeing most since he became blinded. And this little girl thinks she can just cheat her way through on getting him to see it?

But it was meant with such good intentions. He can feel her excitement, the enthusiasm dancing on her skin as she wants so badly to do something for him.  _That_ paints an even better picture in his mind than… seeing the Sky.

It reminds him of when he tried to give the ice-cream wrapper bracelet to Stick, and the way Matt felt when his mentor crushed it. He doesn't want her to feel that way.

"I guess you're right," he finally concedes, making sure to smile as he lowers his hands.

She's utterly pleased and he can't help feeling pleased himself. "You know, you should add an 'e' to Sky," he tells her. "Makes it more of a name."

"Yeah? Ok! Skye…" she says, moving it around on her tongue. "I really like it Matt. I feel like it's me."

"Me too." And he really does, though he's not sure how he can tell. He hasn't known her very long.

"I'm leaving tomorrow," she says sadly. "Another foster home,  _the Brodys_."

"I'm sure it'll go great," he says, because her tone tells him she doesn't feel the same way. But who wouldn't like her? Sure she is pretty… charismatic, but parents like spunky kids. As long as they aren't _too_ mischievous…

Ok he could see that being a problem. But she's got a big heart and he thinks that should make up for it.

She shrugs. "I try not to get my hopes too high anymore. It's easier when I come back that way."

"Don't worry, you're gonna find a family," he tells her.

"You think so?"

"I- I promise."

He doesn't know why he did that. But it seemed like it had to be true. He just has a gut feeling. Though he's hesitant, as Stick's sudden leave makes him wary of any form of sentimentality. Such as a gut promise.

She nudges him playfully, but the beat beforehand makes him think she'd put a smile on her face first.

They go back to the orphanage together. And Skye's right, the nuns don't notice that she'd been gone.

Skye leaves the next day. And though she does come back not too much later, they don't really talk anymore. They are always missing each other somehow or separated by being a few years apart. So they're not  _really_  friends, even though they're both very aware she knows his secret. And she'll always be out there, somewhere. But as much as she knows what Matt's hiding he knows she won't tell anyone, either.

After all, she did keep Chrissy Elkridge's secret for two whole years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wanted to solidify my idea for the rest of this story and clean up the bullying part of this chapter before posting, but when I saw that someone had posted something that was the exact same as the start of mine, I wanted to get it up quickly. I haven't read theirs by the way, so any similarities are coincidence.
> 
> Please let me know what you think and thanks for reading!


	2. The Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Skye returns to New York City she run into some trouble, and it's the first call for help Matt decides to answer.

To say Skye is nervous… well, that would be an understatement.

She's never done this. Sold information. But it isn't really selling is it? After all, she's not getting paid money. So.

Plus they gave her an in. It's important information she can give to the Rising Tide, and she'd never even have had a hint on it if it weren't for these people approaching her. Union Allied Construction Company, the people who hired her, probably isn't squeaky clean either (why would information be so important to a company unless they have something to hide?) but she figures it's a step. She's doing good work.

And she's run up dry on every other lead. So, she has to take this.

Which brings her back to here, in the now, back in New York City where she was possibly born and definitely raised. It doesn't bring back too bad of memories. Or at least it wouldn't if she weren't walking down an alley right now. Alleyways were where the worst of shit happens.

But she finds Carrie's Cupcakes old, hasn't-been-used-in-ten-years sign easy enough. It's where they're meant to meet.

Skye leans against the wall beneath the sign and rubs at her cold forearms.  _I should have brought a jacket,_  she chastises herself.

Well,  _acquired_  one would probably be the better term, considering she hasn't got one of those at the moment. Now she just has a flannel she stole from a foster brother years back and it doesn't even go all the way down her arms.

It brings her a chill that she's far too preoccupied with for her own good, and she jumps and gasps when a voice cuts through the night air.

"Do I have the pleasure of addressing Skye?"

It takes her a beat to recompose after nearly jumping out of her skin. "Yes, you have the- I mean… yeah that's me."

"I'm so sorry," says the suit. A suit, in this part of town. Quite a sight. "If I'd have known you were… well, a young lady, I never would have asked to meet under such conditions."

Skye musters up a fake grin she's mastered over the years. "Well, you never know what you're going to get with online dating. Sorry to disappoint," she quips. He doesn't seem to think it's funny. "I'm not gonna lie though… this is shady."

"My apologies. You are aware that you are not in the most legitimate of businesses, I hope?"

"I'm aware hacking is very much on the down low, yeah."

"So you can understand why my company should not be seen fraternizing with… such people."

He looks her up and down. She gets that a lot. Sometimes it's guys eying if they wanna try to go in for the prize, if what's underneath all the ratty clothes and dirt would still make a good lay.

But this guy? He's just looking at the top layer. And he's none too impressed.

She clears her throat. "Yeah, totally. I get it, but I would like to get back to my safe and cozy hotel kind of ASAP."

"Understandable."

She nods, staring at him. Something about a calm, collected suit down this dingy street where it smells like rotten eggs and, for lack of a better word, despair… it unnerves her.

She shakes out of it though. She whips out her laptop and shows the man the screen.

"So, what you guys had me look into was totally right. Their payments don't add up. See this here? There was almost twelve million recently moved to the shipping department. And I'm not awesome at math, but considering they shipped less than their previous trimester I find it weird that they'd need three times as much money."

"Hmm. Interesting."

She shuts her computer. "Anyway, I set up an algorithm that should help your people sort through the rest and probably make some decisions for yourself without my financially challenged mind getting in the way. I put it on a USB."

She's been shifting through her bag, getting her laptop put away at the same time as fishing out the flash drive. Once she has it in her palm, she just grips it with her hand still inside her pack.

"Um… so yeah," she says, a little stunted. "So I'll give that to you if…"

"Don't worry, Miss Skye. I have your payment," he says, holding out a USB of his own. "Though I do have a little paperwork for you to fill out first."

He literally pulls out a clipboard with white forms on it and a pen at the top. Like she's at the doctor's office and not the depths of Hell's Kitchen.

"Paperwork? Ok well, I thought the fact that we were meeting in an alley made this unofficial, like you said…"

"It is a confidentiality agreement. Quite important, really. We can't exactly have this information getting out of Union Allied's hands."

"Oh, um… I'm sorry, this was never discussed. They're… they're stealing money from everyone. And people have a right to know! Who else knows what they could be doing? The police need to be involved, really."

The suit laughs and her blood runs cold. "Miss Skye, please, take a look at the paperwork. If you sign that, along with your…  _preferred_  method of payment we can actually give you quite a generous sum in cash."

She looks down at the clipboard offered to her.

Skye's jaw drops open and she almost forgets to pick it back up, because holy shit. Fifty Gs really ain't bad.

And for someone who spent her last thirty bucks a couple weeks back on a gym membership so she'd have a place to sleep, it's pretty damn good.

But… "Why wouldn't you want anyone to know? If they're a competitor you can just shut them down and everyone wins."

"Let's just say it's more an internal familial dispute, and we wouldn't want to mar our sister's name."

The companies are working together, Skye realizes. One was getting a little handsie with their funds and the other decided to check into it.

But they're gonna take care of it quietly… Who knows how many people are getting hurt in these dealings? What she found pointed to illegal actions… and if she's not mistaken, most likely a front for happenings that are probably not the best. That, along with the  _giant_ amount they're offering her… It only makes sense.

She would be taking blood money.

"I… I'm sorry. This was a mistake," she mutters, pushing the clipboard back to the man's chest and turning around.

He grabs her wrist.

"Hey, let go!"

And he does, surprisingly. So quickly it almost seems like an accident he'd tried to snatch her arm in the first place. Skye begins walking away and though he doesn't touch her again, he's hot on her heels.

"I really must insist. You've already done the work and I can tell by your current predicament you _need_  this."

"Look, I don't do this for the  _money_  I do it because information is free. I'm sorry, I never should have taken this job. Please just find someone else."

Skye speeds up. She looks back only once a few moments later to check if it's not her mind playing tricks that she doesn't hear footsteps following. It's not. He's not behind her.

In fact, she doesn't see him at all.

Skye's blood goes from cold to icy.

She hears a  _crack!_  noise, her ears are ringing from the sound and her head feels as though it's been split in half.

Most likely because the noise came from her forehead hitting the brick wall.

Suddenly Skye's shoved face forward into the backseat of a car. Her mind's running slow from the hit, but she can hear the man's mutterings. "Tying up loose ends" and "no damn duct tape". She feels her arms yanked behind herself and tied with something smooth and bulky.

She screams.

Not incoherently. Curses and demands to leave her be as she begins fighting for her life. Because she doesn't know how it happened, or when,  _when_ she even realized it, but that's what this is now.

She's fighting for her _life_.

" _Do_  shut up," the suit demands of her, sounding more irritated than angry. His casualness of the situation scares her, and all of a sudden the foreboding he brought with him is ever so evident. "You had your chance. You're lucky you have a pretty little head that'll sell nice to the Russians; it's the only thing keeping me from putting a bullet in it."

She can't help but gasp a sob. Skye never realized she was in so deep. Into something where murdering businessmen meet in scary alleys, buy people off to keep quiet or sell girls to foreigners. Things were so much simpler when she was looking at these unlikely happenings from behind a screen.

She wants to scream again, but she can't seem to get it out again. She's choking back tears and breathing too hard from shock as he presses his weight onto her back.

When he's wrapped around her and guiding her to the now open trunk, a blind panic sets in and she screams as loud as she can.

She's shoved inside anyway and he closes the top.

She still doesn't stop screaming.

* * *

Matt's not really fond of school breaks.

All his friends leave. Most importantly, Foggy leaves. He actually invited Matt this year to come for Easter, but Matt tells him it would be smarter to use the time to get some studying in.

Truly he just doesn't want to intrude.

So, alone and, for all intents and purposes, bored, he takes a trip back to Hell's Kitchen.

He's not sure why. Nostalgia, he supposes. He wants to get a pizza at the old place he used to go to when his dad was alive. And his mom. Because Easter's tomorrow. It's a time for family and he figures sharing one of the only meals he remembers that will taste more or less the same is as good as anything. But on actual Easter Sunday everything will be closed.

He passes alleys that have engrained themselves into his mind, like a map permanently sketched. He hears the familiar rats and sewer water, smells the overpowering stenches.

He passes one road that used to have a few small businesses, one a cupcake shop that he used to enjoy, but they've since dried up.

It is not still, not quiet, there, though.

He listens. Merely in passing, doesn't even slow his pace.

There's a deal going on. He first thinks drugs, but the man's voice is too formal and he can smell the expensive cologne wafting of him. The girl is too inexperienced, or perhaps just nervous. Either way, she's not a junkee.

Matt continues on. It doesn't matter. It's not his business, no matter how odd the happening is.

He enters the old pizza shop and places his order. He couldn't find the number and they're too small to even have gotten a website yet. But since it's 2011  _everyone_ has a website, and they probably should take the time. He finds it rather endearing though. Quaint.

He sits down to wait the twenty minutes they say it will take when he hears it.

The girl from the alley is screaming.

He bolts upright, stands faster than most people would consider normal. Especially for a blind man.

"Whoa, buddy, you alright?" asks the boy behind the counter.

Matt doesn't acknowledge him. Focuses on listening.

Matt ignores these things, usually. One would not believe the noises this city endures, the cries for help and shouts of madness. He'll call the police when he can.

But for this girl it's now or never.

And somehow, some compulsion from the mere sound of her voice, is telling him he needs to help her.

He moves swiftly but convincingly out the door, though once he passes the threshold into the cover of night he's off. He rushes through the streets to go back two blocks where the strained noise is coming from.

He hears her try to plead with the guy, saying how she'll do whatever task he'd asked of her. Whatever it is, he doesn't accept and she turns back into hysterics.

She's very loud now, at least until there's a soft  _thunk_  and her decibels decrease only somewhat. Even through the trunk of a car he knows someone without his enhancements could hear her.

The car starts and begins moving, too fast for Matt to catch up. But as he listens to the engine he can tell which direction they're headed.

It's… a crazy notion, but he drops his cane and latches onto the ladder of a nearby apartment building. He hasn't flexed his climbing muscles in quite a while, but it feels almost like riding a bike. He makes it to the top of the building.

Then across it.

And then… then he has to jump.

It's easier than he thinks though the gap is fairly large. At the next building the leap is near effortless.

He follows the sounds of the car but perhaps even more so her screaming. She hasn't let up yet. The banging is adamant too, which he believes is coming from kicks.

Suddenly her shouting becomes the all too apparent noise as the car begins to slow. It's only been three blocks.

Matt feels like he didn't need to do this rooftop thing at all.

But he decides it's probably a good vantage to get a drop on the guy.

Matt lowers himself quietly and stealthily down the fire escape, getting close enough to have a good view but far enough that he still won't be seen.

The man gets out of his car and fixes the edges of his suit. Casually, as if there isn't a sobbing girl in the back of his vehicle. But he soon goes to deal with the issue, rounding the car and opening the trunk.

The girl sits up immediately like he's going to let her get up and go, just like that.

But then there's a gun on her forehead and even Matt can feel the speed her eyes wince together at the touch of that. She lowers herself to lie down again on her back, willingly cowering back into her own containment.

"I'm afraid I don't have anything to gag you with, but so help me god if you make one more  _damn_ sound I will rip the shirt of your back and  _stuff it_  in that loud mouth of yours _!"_

His voice started off serene but with definitely something to be wary of before he started full blown shouting into her face. Like a calm before storm.

"Or I can just pull this simple little trigger and cease the sound that way. So stay  _quiet_ ," he explains, the storm already released and leaving just the serene tone in his voice again.

Her breathing quickens and her sobs dissolve into tiny shakes as she attempts to cry silently. Satisfied, the man shuts the trunk again.

Matt swallows bile. He can't believe he even almost thought of passing her up. Of just _allowing_  this to happen. His fists clench as he feels a rage towards the disgusting man threatening a defenseless woman, and finds himself actually looking forward to the moment of his attack.

That thought he's not fond of. God would surely forgive violence towards someone to save another, but relishing in it? That can't be the moral thing to be feeling.

The man twirls about himself suspiciously after closing her in. Searches around like something is going to pop out at any moment.

So that's exactly what Matt does.

He sails down from the fire escape, surprise on his side as he hits the man with his feet. The gun goes soaring off to the side and across the concrete, which is slick from recent rain.

The thug looks confusedly around himself. He's on the ground, on all fours, and Matt gives him another kick in the head. He's still not out, but there's a dazed look in his eyes. His head turns towards Matt.

Matt feels anxiety creep up within him. Through the impromptu decision to save this girl he never even though about preserving his identity. He can't let this man see him.

He quickly dives bodily over the man so Matt's back is against the car. Placing two hands on the trunk for support he leans back into it then springs his feet forward to get the momentum he needs to knock the fairly large man out.

Matt's glasses stay on for the whole experience. Convenient.

He takes a moment to compose, letting himself chew on the decision he'd made so quickly, nearly letting his identity slip through the cracks. It could have been foolish, but it seems to have worked out.

Now there's just the woman in the trunk to take care of. The smart thing for Matt to do would be to call the police. He'd taken out the immediate threat, surely the cops could handle the rest.

But her terrified cries and heartbeat and shaking rings through his mind's thoughts and he can't stand the idea of leaving her in there another minute.

He's even concerned for her current status. The girl is startlingly still now, but just by the heavy breathing he can feel her outlining vibrations in the trunk. He finds the handle to push it open.

And is quickly rewarded by a headbutt to his own.

Oh, now his glasses fall off.

The girl springs out of the car swiftly as she can with her hands tied behind her back and makes a break for it. Matt doesn't bother with the fallen glasses, immediately going after her.

"Whoa, whoa, hey!" he calls to her as she runs, catching her bodily.

"No! Let go, let go!" she shrieks in pure terror. He spins her around as fast as he can to inspect what feel like jumper cables tying her hands behind her back. This man hadn't been planning on taking anyone hostage tonight. This had been improvised.

But due to the rubber Matt's able to untangle them even through her squirming, releasing her the moment he's done. She breaks away from him but quickly stills. Realization that he's helping grips her.

She glances uncertainly around herself, absorbing the scene while her breathing remains rapid. It's slowing though, or at least becoming less erratic. The shock is settling in to a point of understanding.

"You-you took him out?" she asks hoarsely, pointing at the unconscious man. Her body's quivering.

Matt nods. "Yeah."

And he realizes she's seeing his face. But if he can play it off like he's not blind through the dark of night and just convince her to get on her way, that would be ok.

"You should go. Before someone tries to come finish what he started," Matt tells her.

"I would but…" she starts quietly. Her head tilts towards the man on the ground and she steps forward to inspect him. Kneeling, she tentatively grabs something from the guy's hand and brings it to her face.

"He took my flashdrive…" she trails off, as though wracking her brain for something. "But… shit! He left my laptop!"

"Your laptop." It's a question, but Matt's voice is fairly flat with disbelief.

"Yeah, my laptop! My heart and soul and only reason to live."

Well. Matt thinks that's a fairly over-dramatic phrase.

"Well you're  _still_  living," he points out. "Something that could very easily have gone a different way."

She stares at him for only moment, then shakes her head as though clearing it. "Ok… yeah. Yeah you're right. I'm sorry I forgot to-" She takes a deep breath. "Thank you for helping me. But I  _need_ my laptop. Will you… could you come with me to get it?"

Matt almost scoffs. "How about you try walking away with your life and just go back to where you came from?"

"Do I look like I can just walk to the nearest apple store and buy a top dollar computer to you?" she asks, and he can tell she's indicating her clothes.

 _You don't look like anything to me,_  he wants to say.  _Not in the way you think._

She seems to read his mind. Her head tilts in puzzlement at his face, her eyes then drawn to the glasses he is decidedly not picking up on the ground. She steps towards him. Inspects his face.

"What?" he snaps. He's getting nervous and, frankly, her staring is a bit rude. But he knows she's onto him.

Matt expects her to say "what's wrong with your eyes?" or "are you blind?" but she just says:

"Matthew?"

So he just blinks.

"Matt Murdock! It's me, Skye! From St. Agnes. You know…" she gets real quiet and mumbles off, "Mary Sue Poots."

Somehow, he's not even all that shocked because it makes perfect sense. He thought he heard something in her voice, something like familiarity, but puberty has distorted her enough that he couldn't make it out.

This person he was worried would find out his secret is the only one who already knew.

"Skye," he says with a grin. "How did you know it was me?"

"Well there can't be too many blind ninja warriors out there in the world, can there?" she asks. Stops and thinks. "Are there?"

More than she knows.

"Not too many," he concedes.

"Is this what you do?" Skye asks. "Are you not hiding it anymore?"

"I've never done this," he admits, almost grinning at the thought. "You stood out to me."

"Thank god," she mumbles looking around herself as though renewing her horror for the situation. She takes a deep breath. "I still need my laptop. Are you coming or what?"

He really doesn't want to. Get involved, or anything like that. But it's Skye. It's Mary Sue.

How can he leave her?

 

"Shit!" she exclaims ten minutes later when she sees the broken laptop in pieces. "I… urg! Shit!"

She's quiet then, overlooking the remains of her laptop as though waiting for it to reassemble itself.

"Sorry about your computer," Matt offers her when the silence becomes too much. "But don't you see how much worse that could have gone?"

She inhales sharply, a deep angry breath, but lets it go with something like zen.

"I know. I can't imagine that people even – that he was-" She sighs and tries to find words, the contorted expression on her face making him wish he didn't even remind her. "That guy was going to sell me like a dog, and it was my own stupid fault being careless," she bit out spiteful and scared, before her head sagged downwards. "I just… I don't  _have_  anything else."

Her voice was full of raw despair while she knelt down and stared at the destroyed machine, grieving. As though it were a murder scene. But when she riffles through the wreckage her face lights up.

"Well," she mumbles, voice heading back to normality, "I got a consolation prize." She lifts her head and wags a flash drive at him.

"What's that?" he asks.

"What I came here for."

"Why you came to Hell's Kitchen?"

She shakes her head. "New York."

"So you don't live in the city."

"Nope, L.A. Came here for the job."

He wants to ask her questions, curiosity nearly getting the better of him. But instead he just sighs. "We need to get out of here."

She nods in agreement, though her heart beats faster and she curls inward as though timid.

"Where are you staying?" he asks.

"The people who hired me put me up in a hotel…" she mumbles.

"You can't go back there."

She scoffs. "I know. I'm just not sure where  _to_  go. Know any good shelters?"

She asks the question with a casual ease and Matt knows that she's done this many times before.

He shakes his head. "My roommate's gone for the night. You can come stay with me."

Her face recoils a bit in shock. "You don't have to do that. You've… you've done enough."

"Oh come on," he coaxes. "It's not like you're a stranger or anything."

"Heh," she sort of laughs, half-heartedly. Then she purses her lips together and nods. "Ok. Thank you."

"Sure," he says. "But first…"

Matt lets the end of his sentence drag so it fills her with dread, knowing he's being a little cheeky.

"Yeah?" she asks nervously.

He smiles. "We have to pick up my pizza."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the response you guys! I'm glad you like it.
> 
> I hope you don't mind that they've fast forwarded to adults, and that it's a bit of a different vibe... This was going to be three chapters long with each chapter at a different age, but this one got long and so the next one will pick up right where this left off. (Where another character may be making an appearance...)


	3. Pizza Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye stays at Matt's dorm for the night.

Skye's in shock. And while she probably should be more in shock by her attempted kidnapping just less than an hour earlier, she's more astounded by the fact that fellow orphan Matt Murdock  _saved_  her.

They found his cane on the way to the pizza shop. And now Matt walks as he taps it along the ground, when she knows he is capable of so much more.

She wonders how often he knows bad things are happening and doesn't do anything. She understands, really, because it's not expected of people to go play vigilante or anything. They could get hurt.

But she would be… she would be in a pretty bad place right now if he hadn't. And she can't help but ponder how many others he could help.

It's a horrible thought. She's grateful, she's really really grateful. And not only for the saving.

"Mmm, warm pizza," she says wistfully, stuffing it in her mouth. "I haven't had warm pizza with magnificently gooey cheese in like… a very long time." Miles doesn't like pizza and if she has warm food at all lately it's by his generosity. (But seriously, who doesn't like pizza?)

Matt smiles at her. He offered her some and she asked if he'd mind if she ate a slice on the way to his place. She's not sure how she ended up holding the entire box.

They take the subway and a taxi back to his college. After stuffing her face, she's uncharacteristically quiet. She's guessing he has questions and she's going to have to answer them.

"Home sweet home," Matt says as he gets to the door of his dorm to unlock it. "We aren't actually supposed to let girls in the all boys dorm."

Skye smirks. "Breaking the rules for me?"

He shrugs. "Well, I can't exactly say I haven't done it before…"

"Ah, so you're a ladies' man. Not surprised. What girl wouldn't fall for that whole baby bird with a broken wing thing with someone so attractive?"

Yes, she realizes, Matt's certainly attractive. Especially when she can see his eyes.

But he's definitely no baby bird.

Matt huffs a laugh. "Yeah, my roommate figured that's how it goes too. Sometimes it works out."

He opens the doors and invites Skye inside with the wave of his hand.

She nearly jumps out of her skin for the second time that night when a figure bounds up out of nowhere.

"Surprise!" shouts a short blonde man and Skye can't help but yelp.

C'mon, it was dark in the room. And she's just been kidnapped! Her nerves are on edge.

The man was absolutely beaming but his face drops as his eyes catch her. "Oh… you're not Matt."

"Foggy?" asks Matt with slight disbelief and confusion, walking inside as he shuts the door.

"Hey! There's Matt!"

"Foggy, I thought you were home for Easter."

"I was, but I'm not gonna leave you out in the cold on such an important holiday! I know you said you had to study but you've had all week. I'm taking you to  _my_ house." His eyes fall on Skye. "Well… unless you found other plans?"

"She's just staying the night," Matt assures.

"Oh." Foggy's eyes light up. "Oooh! Well, I actually have something pretty important to do. Right now. At one o'clock in the morning… I'll be back in like two hours?"

Foggy hurries passed Skye towards the door, stopping just in front of Matt to whisper, "How do you tell, man!"

Matt ignores the question and grabs his arm. "Foggy, you can stay. She's just a friend that needs a place to sleep, if that's alright with you."

Skye shuffles the pizza box to one hand in order to extend her other. "I'm Skye."

"Foggy Nelson," he says, reaching forward to shake her hand. "And you come bearing pizza! Yeah, you can definitely stay."

"It's actually Matt's pizza," she admits a little sheepishly as Foggy grabs it from her arms.

"Oh, even better!" Foggy says, already chomping down on a piece. He jumps backwards onto one of the two beds that make up the room. "So, come here often?"

Skye hears the obvious tone of flirtation in his voice. Usually she has fun picking it up when boys start playing the game, but she's exhausted and not in the mood at all. Still, that doesn't mean that she's going to be rude to the people putting her up.

"Nope, I just came here to… well, it's just a short trip."

"She's had a rough night," Matt says. There's almost warning in his tone that his friend obviously picks up on. His smile drops as he takes in Skye's appearance. She's rattled and dirty, which isn't entirely new, but her head hurts like hell and she wonders if there's any visible representation from it hitting the brick wall. Or if her eyes are still puffy from crying…

"Ah ok, I get ya. Those can be easy to come by around here for an out of towner."

"I'll get you something to sleep in," Matt tells her.

Skye didn't even think about that. She's been sleeping in these clothes for a couple days. It almost seems wrong to go into his clean ones.

"You know, we have a shower here," Matt says, sensing her discomfort when she stood frigid. "If you want to use it."

"Oh my god,  _please_. That would be fantastic. I haven't showered in…" She shakes her head. "Well, you probably don't need to know that detail."

She had been getting showers fairly regularly this month thanks to her gym membership. It was a necessary splurge she decided after some woman tried to pull her laptop out from under her while she slept on a bench. And she had to admit, frequently getting clean was a nice change of pace.

But hitchhiking her way to NYC had stopped that pattern and Skye is pretty certain there is now a layer of dirt, if not other things, coating her skin.

"Ah, I'm sure Foggy hasn't taken a shower in longer. He's not big on hygiene."

"Dude! " he shrieks, and Matt laughs at his friend's irritation.

"At least _I_ can see the shower…" Foggy mutters. Skye feels a slight of anger boil up at him for pointing out Matt's blindness so bluntly, but he seems to have intended it playfully and it's quickly smothered. Matt just keeps laughing and Skye can't help but smile along.

Matt gets her a towel and she goes into the boy's dorm bathrooms, hoping not too many people will share the notion of getting clean at such an hour of the night.

* * *

"You're coming with me in the morning."

"Foggy…"

"No buts!"

"I didn't say but," Matt says. " _But-"_

"Aha! I knew it was coming," he says smugly.

"But isn't Easter a morning holiday? You should probably head back tonight."

"Matt, are you suggesting I go back to Hell's Kitchen at almost two in the morning? That's not a smart or nice suggestion! Anyway, we go to church at 12:30. Trust me, my family doesn't do mornings. And you're coming."

"Well I appreciate the invitation. Or… forced holiday."

"That's the spirit! Now that we got that settled… where the hell did this girl come from?"

"I think she got in with the wrong crowd, way in over her head. She tried to back out and got into some trouble. A man was putting her in his trunk when I saw her."

"Holy shit!"

"She got away and didn't have anyplace to go, so I offered for her to stay the night. I thought you'd be gone."

"No that's fine she's here. I'm all about helping a pretty girl. It just seems a little unprecedented…?"

"Well, if it makes a difference, we  _did_  know each other back at the orphanage growing up."

Both men turn to see Skye has come back in through the propped open door. Near silently. Though Matt knew when she'd taken her first steps out of the bathroom anyway.

She's put on the sweats and t-shirt Matt offered her and now walks inside, patting dry her hair with a towel. No one has anything to say and the air remains stagnant as Skye takes a seat on the foot of Matt's bed. He sits at a desk chair.

"So what is it that you do, exactly?" asks Foggy.

Skye tilts her head. "You mean, why was I meeting with a shady businessman in the middle of alley and getting my ass kicked?"

"Uh, yes. Yes that is in fact what I meant."

She sighs, looking a little embarrassed. "I've recently been taught how to hack and, well, I picked it up pretty fast. Usually I just release information on the net when I find something of substance, but this guy offered me a job and…"

"You needed the money," Matt finishes for her. Skye immediately huffs angry breath from her nose.

"No. It wasn't like that."

Even if he couldn't hear her heartbeat, Matt's pretty sure he'd know she isn't lying. Her voice holds harsh offense.

"I'm looking for information on my parents," she admits. "They said they had a way to find that."

"The flash drive?" asks Matt. She nods.

"It was so stupid," she scoffs. "I convinced myself that I could give everyone the information if the corp turned out to be dirty, but Union Allied wanted me to stay quiet about it. Now I can't even check what they gave me because my laptop was smashed to smithereens…"

"Oh, I have a laptop!" Foggy offers, rushing to his desk to get it. "I can't replace your old one or anything, but you can check what's on the drive."

Skye becomes ecstatic at the thought. Beaming, she thanks Foggy and goes into the pocket of her discarded jeans to bring out the jump drive.

"Huh, that's weird…" she mumbles, looking at the computer.

"What?" Matt asks.

"It's just one file. I was expecting… more."

"Maybe they put everything they found together," says Foggy.

"It's still pretty small though."

Matt hears her click on it and waits as she silently reads. Her breath hitches.

"That's it?" she says, sounding near heartbroken. " _That's_  it?"

"What does it say?" Matt asks.

"Nothing," she bites out spitefully. He can hear the tears in her eyes as she gets up from the desk and sulks back to the bed.

Foggy looks over the open files. "It's an admission file to St. Agnes Orphanage," he explains. "But most of it's blacked out. It says it's for a baby girl and… she has normal blood pressure and all that, but most of the details are-"

"Gone!" Skye shouts, standing up from the bed. "Just freaking gone, like everything else I've had in my life. How did they even do that?" She sighs. "Guess I'm not very good at making my own luck…"

Matt almost comments on that, as he remembers their conversation from a lifetime ago. But Foggy overtakes him.

"Well, maybe you're asking the wrong questions. A better one would be  _why_ would someone want to redact your files? And who the hell did it? I don't recognize this weird bird symbol. Do you?"

Skye shakes her head.

"She just shook her head," Foggy explains to Matt. Matt catches Skye's tilted head in his direction.

She thought Foggy knew about him.

"Well don't ask me," Matt says of the bird symbol. "I'm pretty sure I couldn't recognize it, considering I don't see too many logos. But Foggy's right. There must be some reason people don't want anyone to know where you came from."

"Like what? I'm the long lost princess and they don't want me to have my throne?" she asks.

They both stare.

She bristles under their gazes. "Hey… Anastasia is a  _lot_ of orphan girls' favorite movie."

"Ok, well I'm gonna guess _no_ ," says Foggy. "But good brainstorming."

"I can't believe _this_  is what they were going to pay me with." Skye exhales, trying to tone down some frustration. "At least it's something to go on. I came to a dead end stop before. Now I'll see if I can find anything on this…  _bird_  organization and go from there."

"That's the spirit!" Foggy exclaims. "Now we should get to bed. Easter's tomorrow and you are both coming."

"What?" Skye exclaims. "Um, no, I couldn't…"

"Trust me. It's just an hour away and they'd love to have you!"

"Well…"

"We can talk about it in the morning," he dismisses before she can say anything else. "When I'll totally convince you to come. Now I'd really like to go to sleep because being back at home with the entire extended family makes slumber  _very_  difficult, and I'd like to take advantage of being here." His head moves back and forth between Skye and Matt. "What are… the sleeping arrangements?"

"I'll just prop myself up in the desk chair with some pillows," Matt quickly offers. He'd been thinking about it a bit.

"No way," Skye says. "We can both fit in the bed. And if you're not ok with that  _I'll_ be the one sleeping on the ground. I'm just grateful for a roof over my head."

"We can go in the bed," Matt affirms. He's fine with it. It won't be awkward. And he really doesn't want her sleeping on the ground.

He hears Foggy mutter some begrudged curse words to himself that Matt's not supposed to be able to hear. He can't help but smile to himself.

* * *

Skye lies in a bed that isn't a cot at the gym or at a shelter. It _is_  a dorm, but it's so much nicer than she's become accustomed to. Though she was looking forward to the plush bed at that hotel, after realizing their intentions she incredibly grateful for not being there.

Matt lies beside her, a perfect gentleman that doesn't try anything. She didn't really expect him to. Somehow, he just doesn't seem the type. But she can't fall asleep and just lies awake though her eyes are shut, thinking of some of the piss poor decisions she's made in life.

"Having a rough time?" Matt asks quietly. She starts a bit. She didn't know he was awake.

"Yeah," she admits. "I hope my… breathing isn't keeping you up or anything."

He chuckles. "If that were a problem I would never get a wink. Foggy sounds twice as loud as you and he's across the room."

She breathes out her nose quickly, a small remnant of a laugh. Her head tilts to the side and she stares at him. His eyes are wide open and looking to the ceiling.

"Why haven't you told him? You know, what you can do."

"I haven't told anyone."

"So no one knows?"

He hesitates and his eyes turn to her. "Just you."

She's not sure that's entirely true. But  _she's_ not a human lie detector.

"Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you," she says. He actually turns his head and trains slightly unfocused eyes her way. "For everything tonight."

"You're welcome, Skye."

She moves forward and presses her lips gently onto his. It's sudden, but he seems ready for it. Of  _course_  he is, he has super senses. He kisses back. It's light like they're testing the waters, and she wants it that way. It's a thank you kiss more than anything.

Because that's what the guys want, right? What good is saving a damsel in distress if you don't get to try out your Lois Lane in the end.

But Skye wants to kiss Matt. Not only is he attractive, he has an amazing heart.

Her only reservation, in this moment, is that she's starting to be with Miles. They're not official. They've been friends for a while and have only started make-out sessions or hook ups. So she's a little uneasy about this… but she  _should_ thank the man who saved her life, right? And despite her hesitation she does want this.

Matt breaks off, suddenly. He stares at her like he's searching for something with his eyes, but he can't even see.

"Something's wrong," he states. "You're with someone?"

Skye gulps. Now she's embarrassed. "It's nothing official…"

"But you feel wrong about doing this."

Her eyes glance away from him. She nods, a little.

"Sorry," she mumbles. He nods too.

Well now sharing the bed is pretty awkward.

"You shouldn't release what you found, Skye," he says suddenly. And while it's a strange turn, she welcomes the distraction.

She frowns. "The people have a right to know."

"I know you feel that way. I knew that's why you were going to do it," he says. "But in this instance they will trace it right back to you. You have to hold onto the information."

"But I'll be in LA-"

"They will find you," Matt pronounces, as though trying to make it extra clear to her. "The only difference is I won't be there to help you out."

As much as she wants the information out there, she knows he's right. His words bring about renewed fear of being trapped in that trunk, being delivered some like she's just goods to be bid on.

And next time she might not even be so lucky.

She nods, biting her lip to hold back sudden tears trying to break through. "Ok. I won't. But… maybe when you're a big time lawyer and things have calmed down, we can try to do something about it together."

Matt laughs. "Yeah. That sounds nice."

"It does," she hums. "Ok, sleep time?"

"Good idea."

She smiles and snuggles back into the sheets, somehow feeling less restless than before their little awkward moment.

"Goodnight," she whispers. She starts drifting before she even listens to his response.

They sleep soundly and in the morning Foggy does convince her to go to Easter. (Pretty pathetic to admit, but Skye has a hard time passing up free food these days.)

It's a big family party. More than just a polite celebration, like Skye would have thought for a holiday such as Easter.

She hits it off well with the party's kids. They like her and Matt, asking him about his blindness and her charisma enthralling them. They all help Matt participate in the egg hunt, filling his basket with their own findings when they realize he's having a hard time.

It makes her feel a small pang of… well, something akin to sadness that she knows he could truly find them very easily.

But it's fun. Carefree and different than what her life has been; finding places to sleep so she won't have to admit to Miles she has no place to call home while helping with the Rising Tide.

At the end of the night Skye finds herself in the midst of a bet. A conversation starts that ends with telling people she's a hacker, and one of Foggy's particularly skeptical uncles doesn't believe her. He goes to his car and brings out a laptop for her to prove it on.

"C'mon Uncle Mark, leave her alone…" Foggy protests.

"I just want to see if she can do it. I'll even tell you what, we'll make it a bet: you get into my Facebook and I'll let you keep the computer."

Skye's mouth unhinges because that is basically the "very easy" mode when playing the hacking game.

"And if I lose?" she asks.

"Then-"

"Wait, never mind," she cuts him off. "Tell me after."

Because she's so confident it really doesn't matter what would happen if she lost. Since she isn't going to lose.

And she wins.

He hands over the computer and she was in such awe that a new machine was so quickly in her grasp she didn't realize what a hustler she's being. It is his  _laptop_. And it's kind of nice, nicer than her old one. She feels a little guilty.

"Don't," Matt tells her. "You know the one member of a family who has all the cash? That's Uncle Mark."

Skye smiles warmly. She didn't really know that, given her inexperience with families. But it makes her feel good about the happening.

 

Matt invites her to spend one more night in the dorm and she plans to head back to California the next day.

Foggy doesn't stay. Says he was always going to sleep at his mom's place that night and leave in the early morning for class, though Skye thinks he's trying to give them some space. Definitely a fair wingman.

But last night's kiss gone wrong warns her against trying anything else. Obviously Matt doesn't want to be involved, and her body is surely telling her the same thing if he read it from her.

At least she gets to sleep in Foggy's bed this time.

"So would you do it again?" Skye asks as she sits under the covers.

"What?"

"Help someone? Like you helped me."

"No I… I couldn't do that."

"Really?" Skye asks skeptically, picking herself up off the pillows. "Because I don't mean to try and push you into danger, but you freaking destroyed that guy last night. He had a  _gun_  while you don't have a scratch on you."

He huffs a nervous laugh and Skye feels a bit bad for putting him on the spot. "You know my dad was a boxer," he says, presuming that she does. Because she does, so she nods. "He never wanted that life for me."

"Because… the pros are rigged?"

"Because of the danger," Matt stresses. He sighs. "I'm trying not to disappoint him."

"Oh come on Matt," she says. "How could anyone be disappointed with what you did for me? You saved my  _life."_

His eyes dart down and a real darkness crosses over them, a quick shadow.

Skye backpedals at the sight of his expression. "But I get it. You want to make your parents proud. Hell, my parents are a figment of my imagination and I still try to be the person they'd want to see."

Which… she's probably failing miserably at.

"Skye," he says. "You have parents, they're not made up."

"Might as well be…" she grumbles, before giving him a sympathetic smile. "Look, all I'm saying is you've got great power, and a ton of weird crap is going to come with that. It'll probably catch up to you, so just… try to be aware when it does."

He nods his head, in a non-committal sort of gesture and Skye knows that's the end of the conversation.

Matt's a good person; he never would have saved her if he wasn't. And it's not right of her to ask so much of him when he's not ready.

But she has high hopes that one day he will be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Daredevil people might be a bit off... I'm gonna re-watch a few episodes before I write the next chapter, which you should expect in abouuuut 2 weeks.


	4. Superpowers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brainwashed powered person starts attacking Matt, but luckily Skye is there to help.

So, this is different.

Matt's been through a lot. A hell of lot. The fact that he got rid of Fisk not too long ago had been something to celebrate. And he was just a man, even if a highly dangerous one.

But a guy that can shoot electricity through his hands? That's a little higher on the tough scale.

He should have known this was a trap, as the kid was making a public spectacle. Not _too_  public; not in Times Square or anything like that. Still in Hell's Kitchen, still in the dirtier parts of town. But he sure as hell wasn't being quiet about his violence either.

One guy, beating up mass amounts of others with no trace as to a reason why? Matt's better than that. Matt's smarter than to fall for that bait.

Or… not.

He "watches" the man from the top of apartment stairs, the ones on the outside. It's a common vantage for Matt to use for him to observe before going on the offensive.

Unfortunately, the blonde guy notices him.

A bit more unfortunate, he's definitely no normal mugger. And Matt's not just talking about the fact that he never takes the victim's money.

The man grips the side of the metal stairs that Matt is currently standing on the tip of twenty feet above. A warm energy,  _electricity_ Matt thinks, trickles out of his hands and crawls its way up to Matt before he can even think.

He feels the jolt, only to lose his footing and fall right off the stairs. Matt's body is stunned from the electricity but his mind manages the clear thought to grab back onto the metal before he plummets too far.

It's a shame it's the same metal that's still being electrified.

But he's prepared for it this time. He pulls himself up despite the pain to use the leverage and jump across the alley to the stairs of the next building over. The leap gets him close enough to the ground where he allows his exhausted body leave to let go and drop directly in front of the man.

He's only a few feet from him now, close enough to see the whites of his eyes if were able to notice such things. The mugger seems determined, holding out his hand to presumably attack again.

Matt's still heaving from the first attack, the fall, the grabbing and jumping… despite heightened senses, his muscles feel like they've been lit on fire.

He can't fight this guy. He doesn't even know the extent of his power. Ninjas? Can be difficult, but sure. Guys that belong in the Avengers? He'd rather take a rain check until he can find out more about his powers.

Powers, Matt realizes, he was hiding in order to get the jump on Matt when he would undoubtedly reveal himself to the mass mugger.

 _Stupid_ , he chastises himself once again.

But Matt's landing has made it impossible to flee without delivering at least one more distracting blow, so he holds his arms up to ready his stance in preparation.

"Charge!" a shout cuts abruptly through the air. "Charge, stop!"

Matt knows where it came from and exactly how far away the girl that yelled is. But if she was addressing the person in front of him, he makes no notion he's heard her.

So Matt attacks.

Kick, punch, kick; fast as he can in order to keep shock-guy distracted. The moves connect, but before Matt can make it out the blonde grabs his leg and delivers a large jolt onto it. It's almost enough to take Matt down, but he kicks up and lands a blow under the boy's chin that jerks him backward.

Matt hates to leave such a potentially dangerous person running about but knows he's in too much pain to continue battling someone that could knock him out if he only holds onto Matt long enough. He turns to leave.

And feels the guy raise his hand to the air behind him. Sparks begin resonating on his palm.

Can his electricity shock things that he's not holding onto?

"No, Charge, don't!"

Then Matt feels it. The push on him is so large it sends him flying in the air backwards at least ten feet before he rolls to a stop on the ground. Thank god he's wearing his new suit to stifle the blow.

Strangely… it feels more like a large force than electricity. But his mind doesn't ponder too long on that at the moment.

He hits his head, and even through the helmet it lands a fair blow. He's still seeing stars when hands are landing and soon tugging on his body. His own hands instantly react, grabbing the person's wrists and spinning them quickly.

"Ow, ow! Stop!"

Matt does, immediately. It's the girl who was shouting earlier. The girl whose voice he now realizes is incredibly familiar.

"Skye?" he asks.

"Quake," she says. "Call me Quake out here. But yes, nice to see you too."

Quake? He's heard of Quake… it's the alias of a woman that can manipulate the seismic energy around herself, whose only been seen once when the cops were overwhelmed at a bank robbery. She showed up with the ability to make the ground shake. The people inside thought it was an earthquake and saw no reason to harm hostages, though it caused enough distraction for the feds to make their move. She was gone after that. But when someone with powers is in the mix it's hard for the news not to spread.

Could  _Skye,_ little Mary-Sue Poots, the almost-kidnapped hacker, be that woman?

If so, he needs to have a conversation with her about that. About having superpowers, or maybe the technology to mimic them.

About her presence here _at all_.

But for now it's shoved to the back of his head.

Skye's been hurrying him away from the scene and he's been letting her, but he's gained his senses back enough that he can scuttle away by without her aid. But they've already turned the corner and are well enough away from the man attacking them, though they stay crouched on the ground.

"I'm so sorry," she mutters. "I panicked when it looked like he was getting ready for a lethal shot and blasted both of you. I should have just focused on Lincoln- I mean… Charge."

"You know that guy?" Matt asks incredulously.

"He's on my team actually."

"Mind calling him off?" Matt asks with a raised eyebrow, standing back on his feet.

Matt doesn't even question the fact that Skye has a team. A team of super powered individuals it seems, herself possibly being one of them. He adds that to the growing list of discussion topics for later.

Skye shakes her head. "I can't, he's been brainwashed and-

"Brainwashed?"

She sighs in frustration and waves him off. "I'll give you the full details later if we get the chance. But you cannot hurt him. I'm here to take him home."

Matt scoffs, catching a smirk with his disbelief. "If he's attacking me Skye-"

"Quake!" she says hastily.

Matt grunts with a bit of impatience. If there were anyone even remotely close enough to hear her name, he'd know. "If he attacks I may have to defend myself."

"Just help me, please. I'm here to contain him. I'd have backup but… SHIELD can't get involved."

"You're with SHIELD?"

He thought that organization was all but dead, though he supposes it's just another surprise to add about the surprising girl who keeps making surprise visits.

"Yes. But recalling what I said earlier, explanations later, mmk?"

Matt nods, a little begrudgingly. He gets that…  _Charge_ has regained his senses and is lying in wait so there's not much time, but he's a little thrown by the sudden situation.

Skye reaches behind herself and Matt can tell she's holding a gun, albeit a strange one at that. It's big and clunky. Not like any normal pistol.

"This will knock him out, but every time I attempt to use it he just makes like a… shocky force field? Then his handlers pull him out. They're probably going to try and take him any second…"

"You want a distraction," Matt guesses.

"Right. I'll take the back. You can keep him busy. Or if you want you can take the ICER and-"

"Not a fan of guns. Even ones that just knock people out. This works."

"Got it."

Skye gets up from her crouched position and starts taking the long way around the building. Matt's still somewhat in shock of… whatever the hell is going on that brought her here and why she seems to be some kind of soldier, or agent apparently, but he puts it aside for now.

He walks out from his hiding place and faces Charge – or Lincoln, maybe. Probably his real name. Skye's voice is ringing in Matt's ears: he knows that this man can shock to kill as well as without touching him. He knows he has to be wary.

And while guns may not be his strong suit, persuasive speaking is. He is a lawyer on his downtime, after all.

But this guy doesn't seem too keen on chatting.

"Charge, right?" Matt asks. "Listen, how about we take a beat."

"Compliance will be rewarded!" he shouts angrily, sending a shock his way that Matt senses quickly enough to dodge.

Skye's coming up behind him, stealthy and fast. Just a few more seconds.

 _"_ _The girl is behind you, Charge. Take her out first."_

Matt hears the barely audible voice as it rings from Lincoln's ears.

He's got comms on him.

Charge turns around abruptly and Matt thrashes forward, grabbing him and forcing his hand upwards so the electric shot meant for Skye merely flies upwards.

Lincoln tries to get his hands on Matt, tries to point them at Matt… he must need them to aim. Matt grabs his arms and forces them to face outward, leaving Charge's stomach exposed.

"Skye! Now!"

She lifts the strange gun and shoots twice, both hitting the target dead on. Lincoln slumps unconscious in his arms as Skye runs up to examine him.

"Oh thank go…"

Skye's voice trails away. Matt wonders if it has to do with the now thunderous sound of a helicopter approaching.

"Another one of your friends?" Matt asks.

Skye shakes her head.

"Then we better get out of here."

"I've got a car around the corner!"

Matt lifts up Lincoln and throws him over his shoulder. He tries to do it as gently as possible but Skye still winces, though she says nothing and begins jogging towards her vehicle.

He puts Lincoln in the back and gets into the passenger seat of the SUV. Skye doesn't waste a second in smashing her foot down on the gas pedal and the car jerks forward.

"Crap," she mutters.

"What?"

"I can shake a tail pretty easily but this is a helicopter, they've got a nice vantage point. Luckily I don't think they want to kill us or we'd probably be gunned down by now."

He scoffs. "Maybe they don't want to kill you two…"

"Yeah, that might be more accurate, given the circumstances."

Matt feels the car swerve violently.

"So, do you have a plan?"

"Not getting caught. Not getting caught is currently the plan," she says, grunting as she spins the wheel harshly again. "Those buildings up ahead have overhead cover. We can ditch the car and start heading on foot until we can hotwire another…"

"Carrying an unconscious man might give us some stares, Skye."

"You got another idea, genius?" she snarks.

"Drive into the center of the city."

"What? No way. I'm not pulling civilians into this or putting our identities on the line –"

" _They're_  thinking the same thing," Matt says, and Skye's head spins a moment to spare a glance at him. "Just trust me."

"Fine. Into the depths of standstill traffic we go…"

It takes a little while, but the helicopter is merely tailing them, so they're not in immediate danger. Eventually they start getting into a more populated area.

And just as well, the helicopter begins to fall back.

"They don't want the attention," Matt tells her.

"Hm," is all Skye says.

"What?"

"I just… I should have realized that. I'm an agent."

"SHIELD, you mentioned," says Matt. She glances at him again.

"I'm guessing you'd like to know what that's about."

"Right now I'm more wondering where you were planning on going from here."

"Officially a SHIELD jet, but I don't want them involved so I made arrangements with a hotel. Though that could be a problem…"

"Because you'd be carrying around an unconscious person?"

"Yeah. Look, I was hoping I could have gotten through to him, or something. But after my last attempt… it became clear that wouldn't work."

She begins rubbing her arm subconsciously. Matt wonders if there's something there his blindness is preventing him from sensing.

He sighs. "It's pretty dead around my apartment. We'll take him there."

Skye hums, apparently pleased with his offer. "I hoped you'd help me out. Just like old times, apparently."

"Only because you have a knack for getting into trouble."

"And you don't?" she says cheekily, before her voice morphs with seriousness. "We'll make sure to lose these guys first. Lin- uh, Charge is one of their prized possessions right now. They're not gonna give him up if they don't have to. We'll still need a new car."

"I know a few shortcuts we could take. Don't worry, we'll get Lincoln to my place."

Skye turns her head to him.

He grins mildly. "You need practice with your codenames,  _Quake_."

"Yeah, still getting used to that."

Matt can't help but chuckle. "That's a little ironic. You know, given that this is your third name."

"Fourth, technically…" she mumbles, shifting in her seat. "You adjusting to Daredevil well?"

"Ah, you've heard."

"Of course I've heard. That's who they sent Lincoln after, and what other blind vigilante is there in New York City? Or… anywhere. Nice horns, by the way."

"Foggy thinks the horns are too much."

"Foggy is right."

He laughs again and hears her quiet chuckle, suddenly wishing he could see the smile that it brings on her face. But it was only for a moment, and he knows that despite the lightheartedness of the situation, Skye is worried.

She turns her head once again, but this time it's not to look at Matt. She momentarily appraises at the figure in the backseat.

"Don't worry Lincoln. I promise I'll get you back," she whispers gently, looking to face the road once again.

Despite the promise, her voice is unsure. She doesn't know if she can get him back. He can tell, as her words hold the telltale signs of a lie.

* * *

Matt carries Lincoln into his apartment over his shoulder and sets his unconscious form down on one of the kitchen chairs. Skye walks gingerly in front of him, as though he might wake up any moment, though she's sure he'll be out for a couple more hours.

She slips rubber gloves tenderly over his hands that go all the way up to his shoulders. Once on, they sink into his skin as though they're being vacuumed.

"That'll keep his powers from working once he wakes up," she tells Matt. He nods. Now the only thing left to do is… restrain him.

It pains her to do it, but she clips the handcuffs onto Lincoln, securing him to the chair.

She sighs and backs away from him just as Matt comes up behind her.

"What are you going to do?" he asks.

"I'm… I'm going to get him back, by whatever means necessary."

"You know how to break a person of brainwashing?"

"Uh, not exactly. I just thought I'd feel it out." She shifts her shoulders as an uncomfortable tension fills the air. Now that the adrenaline from earlier happenings have left them, she feels an awkwardness settle between Matt and herself. "You probably have questions for me."

"A few."

"I could have the same for you."

"You could, but you actually know more about me than most people. Pretty much everything I try to keep secret."

"Oh, wow."

"Obviously you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to."

"No, I know about you, returning the favor is only fair. Plus you're housing my brainwashed friend so… go ahead and shoot."

Matt taps his finger on the coffee table in front of him, thinking. "SHIELD… they are the ones who hid your parents from you, aren't they? And now you're working for them?"

Skye's eyebrows shoot up. "To be honest I thought you'd start with the whole being chased by a super human or 'Quake' thing."

"We'll get there."

"Ok. Well to answer your questions, yes. To both. I got into SHIELD to find my parents and then I just never left." She clears her throat. "And along the way I just happened to get freaky earthquake powers…"

"Huh. So you are  _that_ Quake."

Skye crosses her arms and cocks her head, giving him a skeptical expression she realizes he can't even see. "You know a lot of Quakes then?"

Matt chuckles. "Not exactly. But to find out the girl I keep running into by chance happens to be a superhero is a little shocking."

"Now you know how I feel," she says, grinning. "Though I wouldn't say tonight's meeting was exactly chance, considering they were using Lincoln specifically to get to you."

"What happened to him?"

Skye feels her face fall. She hates what happened to him. She hates that she allowed it to happen. How can she be the leader of a team when she can't even protect the sole member on it so far?

"They took him over a month ago…" Skye starts. "We…  _SHIELD_  couldn't find a trace of him. By the time he resurfaced I tried to –" she stops.

It's hard. The memory is hard for her to think about. That she believed she'd found Lincoln to be rescued, only for him to turn around and have that blank look in his eyes. She realized too late what was going on and he grabbed her arm to shock her until she passed out.

Luckily the team found her before those people could do the same thing to her.

Her hand drifts to her marred arm, as it does so often lately. The now grated skin just above her right wrist is a physical reminder that anyone is capable of anything in this world. Even her true friends. Even if it's not their fault.

"What did you try?" Matt prompts, and Skye shakes her head to regain her thoughts.

"Well, he wasn't the same," she says. "I knew he'd been brainwashed right away. We don't know who's even in charge with Hydra basically on the outs, but they seem to… _rent_  Lincoln to anyone who can pay for him."

She spares a glance over at her friend, hating what they've done to him.

"Guess someone wanting to take you out was the highest bidder," Skye continues bitterly. For Lincoln, for Matt… they don't deserve this.

Matt puts a hand to her shoulder. "You got him back."

Skye smiles, but there's no light behind it. "Yeah, but now I need to get him  _back_. And without SHIELD I don't even know how to start."

"Why can't you go to SHIELD? I thought you worked for them."

"I do. It's just… we had a brainwashed agent a few months ago. Not enough resources to go rescue her…" Or that's what Coulson said. Skye is not a fan of how Agent 33's situation was handled, and often wonders how much would be different if they _had_  used their resources to try and save her sooner. "By the time we got her back, she'd been corrupted by a rogue Hydra agent."

"That organization that took SHIELD down in the first place, right?" Matt asks and makes a somewhat awkward shrug. "Sorry, I don't actually know much about SHIELD other than they're not doing so well these days."

"No no, that makes sense. But yes, that would be the evil organization I'm referring to. Anyway, my team took away Hydra's influence but kept a guard on her even after, just because of the things she'd done for Hydra. I'm not sure that was right. The things she did were completely out of her control. She was loyal before the brainwashing and that of course wasn't her fault. But she _did_ go off the handle after. She kidnapped one of our agents. Tortured her."

"So you don't think they'll even give Lincoln a chance," Matt guesses. If he's shocked by the mention of torture he doesn't show it. But from what Skye's read up on him, he's seen just as dark things.

Skye nods in confirmation. "They won't. They've told me they won't, that it's too dangerous."

Skye understands why Bobbi is against helping Lincoln. Even Hunter. It's too personal for them to even consider.

But Simmons' refusal… It hurts. Skye knows she feels personally responsible for more than what she probably should, but to flat out refuse Skye's pleas to help her friend… she never imagined such a response.

"I'll show them." Skye begins nodding to herself in determination. "Kara only did that because she had Ward whispering in her ear. Maybe… if we'd just  _helped_  her instead of treating her like any other Hydra prisoner, she'd have been ok. Because -" A gasp rips through her throat like a knife. God, how long have tears been brewing in her eyes? "Because he  _has_ to be ok!"

Then Matt's arms are around her and she lets herself go. She can't hold it in anymore. It's been nearly two months of chasing after Lincoln and it feels like years. Even now that they have him there's the chance that he'll never be back, that the Caterpillars have been crushed before they even started.

"We'll figure it out, Skye," Matt tells her. "I'll help you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This really needs another proofread cause I changed a bunch and I'm sure it's riddled with errors but I figured you guys have waited long enough! Delay caused by working on an AoS crack!vid (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AmQF1dbje0 if you're interested) and trying to find a video editor internship (success!)
> 
> Also, we're just going to pretend Simmons got out of that rock rather quickly and nothing really came of it. (Though apparently she's a little more heartless... depending on how you want to perceive her character.) Yeeeah the moment S3 hits this is gonna be AU.
> 
> Sorry Lincoln's name is lame xD
> 
> Guessing one chapter left. There might be a delay but hopefully not as much as this one :)


	5. De-Brainwashing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt and Skye try to break Lincoln's brainwashing when they get some unexpected visitors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A warning: Ward is talked about like a bad guy here. He's not even in it but if you are super sensitive to him you may not want to read.
> 
> Previously: After meeting with Skye a couple times in the past, Matt sees her again when a superpowered person called Charge is after him. Charge, really Lincoln, turns out to be on Skye's team but is brainwashed. Matt promises to help Skye break him of it.

"So do you have any idea where to even start with this?" Matt asks, because he sure as hell doesn't.

Not when the 'this' happens to be brainwashing.

"As a matter of fact, I do. But it's more of like... a hunch."

Matt nods. Any idea of where to start with this works for him. "What do you have?"

"Scents."

"As in, smells? Or in _cense_?"

"Both, actually," Skye responds, rummaging through the black duffel she's brought with her from the car."I read that smells trigger memory responses more than any other sense."

"Right, I've heard that too."

"Heh," Skye chuckles, barely audible, to herself.

Matt cocks his head. "What?"

"Well,  _I_ read it, you heard it..." She clears her throat. "Sorry, bad joke."

Matt finally gets it. He laughs, though it's delayed enough that distress has already played up on Skye's face. "No, that's funny. But I'll have you know I  _can_  read, it's just Braille."

"Right, of course," Skye says, defensively enough that Matt reads her as near lying, but most likely she just blanked about the blind method of reading for a moment.

She lights the actual incense before getting anything else out. The distinct smell rolls through his entire apartment instantly.

"Oh! I forgot to ask. Do you mind if ...?"

"Of course not," Matt says, waving her off as he walks into the kitchen. "Can I get you something? Water or food?"

"Water would be great," she says earnestly. "Can you get a glass for Lincoln as well?"

"Sure."

Matt fills up two cups, taking in his nearly barren kitchen. He grabs some bread as well. Maybe the kid will be hungry.

"So you've got the incense. Anything else?"

"Well, I brought some of his dirty clothes... Honestly, I don't really know what sort of scents are familiar to Lincoln. I just thought incense might help because it's potent and he used it when he was first transitioning me."

Transitioning?

"How long have you two known each other?"

Skye shrugs, almost abashed. "Just a few months. He helped me when I had just gotten my powers."

"I have to admit, I really am curious about those... you've come a long way from the hacker looking for her parents who had no idea what SHIELD was."

"Yeah… Oh, I found them, by the way. My mom's actually who I inherited my gift from."

"Really?" Matt asks with true interest. "Have you met them?"

"Yep. Mom's dead and dad had his memory erased so he doesn't have a clue who I am anymore, actually."

Matt stops walking in his tracks from the kitchen.

"Oh."

"Yeah, long stories."

"You going to wake him up?" Matt asks, prompting Skye to warily cast a glance at the unconscious blonde.

"Um... I was actually just gonna let him wake up on his own."

"Then, by the looks of it, we have time for some long stories."

Skye quirks a half smile.

She tells him what she is, how she got her gift, a very strange and confusing happening with her parents as well as how she got involved with SHIELD... the whole story takes over an hour.

"And that's skipping some details. A lot of details, actually."

The man in the chair begins to cough, and Matt can  _feel_ the lightheartedness drain from Skye's face as she rushes to him. Lincoln gradually takes in his surroundings, clearly disgruntled even as Skye whispers careful reassurances.

He thrashes out. Though he's bound by the cuffs in a way that restrains him from getting anywhere near her, Skye flinches away. Her body language put her on the verge of tears.

"What the hell is going on here?" Lincoln growls, pulling at him arms uselessly. If it weren't for the gloves, Matt would think he'd already have cuts from the metal.

"It's ok," Skye says again, trying for soothing. Her voice comes out shaky. "I'm gonna help you. This is Matt, he'll help you too."

When Lincoln's eyes catch Matt's, he nearly roars as he attempts to escape his binds.

"Calm down!" Skye says desperately, seemingly caught between rushing forth to comfort him and giving him space.

"He's to be eliminated!" Lincoln shouts. "Cut me loose! Or- or I won't be rewarded..."

The last part comes out as a sob, his head drooping forward on his spent body. The tears in Skye's eyes might as well be originating from him.

The room stills for a few moments, Lincoln and Skye in too much of an upset to say anything.

Matt just hasn't got any clue what to say.

"What about you?" the kid snarls suddenly, jerking his head at Skye.

"Me?" she asks, clueless, even pointing to her chest.

"Uh, yeah. Don't you have a name?"

The tears are in buckets now. "Lincoln, it's me. It's Skye."

"Who the hell is Lincoln? My name is Charge!"

Skye's head dips as she shakes it despairingly. "No, no... it's not. God, they took your identity too?"

"Why are you acting like they're the bad guys!" Lincoln shouts. "You're one who tied me up, who's hanging out with... this  _supervillain_."

"I prefer the term vigilante," says Matt.

"Matt," Skye warns, before turning back to her Inhuman friend. "Do you remember anything? What's... your favorite song?"

Lincoln inhales as though preparing to answer, but then shakes his head. He seems suddenly nervous.

"Don't have one."

"A song you like, then," Matt puts in.

"I... I don't like any."

Matt turns to Skye. "Maybe you could turn on something he used to listen to with Youtube?"

Skye throws her hands up. "I don't know what music he likes! Of course." She scoffs. "God, I'm so unequipped for this."

"I think it's more that no ones actually ready-to-go with the skills to break their friend of brainwashing."

Lincoln scoffs. Loud.

They turn their heads.

"Brainwashing?" he asks with a skeptical tone. "That's crazy. That's like sci-fi."

Matt dons a puzzled expression. "You do realize you have the power to make electricity come out of your hands?"

"So?" he says harshly. "And what the hell is that smell?

Matt leans his head close to Skye's ear. "Does he always have this much attitude?"

She shakes her head. But then, out of nowhere, she perks it up. With excitement. "The smell? It's incense! Does it remind you of anything?"

Lincoln sighs with such a lack of amusement you'd think she just asked if he'd enjoy a hole in the head.

"No."

"Don't you remember? You looked after me while I was unconscious for three days... the room was  _drenched_  in incense and I woke up all confused and decently naked?"

Matt's brow furrows. "Ok, is 'transitioner' some code word for something…?"

"It wasn't like that," she quickly tells him, then looks up as though considering, tilting her head from side to side. "Eh, but it was a little weird. Lincoln, do you remember the popcorn analogy? The 'worst analogy ever'?"

"No! And I don't remember you being naked either." He appraises her up and down stiffly. "I  _think_ I'd remember that."

At that, the subtle admission of attraction, Matt wonders if this guy was more than just a member of Skye's team. Even though it's likely majority of people would find her striking, she and Lincoln are around the same age and clearly had some sort of bond.

If they'd been intimate, maybe seeing Skye naked would trigger some memory...

Matt decides he'd save voicing the thought until they are bit more desperate.

Lincoln suddenly thrashes again.

"Maybe we should just turn on some random playlist," Skye suggests, clearly clawing for something to try. "Maybe some of the songs would hit him?"

"Sure. My computer's over on the desk," is what Matt says. What he thinks? They are grasping at straws slipping from their hands.

Though, this whole excursion was like shooting in the dark at sand sized targets.

Skye thanks him and walks over to get the machine, leaving Matt with her brainwashed companion.

Lincoln tightens his hands into fists. Straining.

"I'm pretty sure your powers aren't going to work with those things on."

"Ur-gah!" he shouts a frustrated response. "But I need to complete my job! Mr. Ward will be displeased with me."

A name drop. Could be helpful, considering Skye said she wasn't sure who's in charge of that Hydra organization anymore.

She comes back, his laptop in hand as the song  _Smells Like Teen Spirit_  by Nirvana comes on.

"Does the name Ward ring a bell?" he asks her.

Skye halts abruptly with such a stunted step that Matt thinks she may drop the laptop.

"Where did you hear that name?" she asks in a timid voice, though flames are held back behind her eyes and he knows the name's caused a quiet fury.

"Lincoln," he says cautiously, though bluntly.

She turns to the man in question. " _Grant_  Ward?" she asks.

He nods in affirmation, all too eager to speak about his boss. "I have to comply for him. Do you know Mr. Ward?"

"He works for Hydra again?" she asks, ignoring her friend's question completely in favor of her own. He doesn't seem to mind.

"He runs it."

Skye just sort of stops, then. Not that she was moving, but her face just goes blank. Breathing soft and shallow, it seems like she's not thinking or responding and is just numb.

Then she screams.

* * *

"God- Damnit- Shit- freaking- Gah... WARD!"

Skye is aware she's acting like a crazy person. A blind fury has resonated inside of her, and she may or may not have knocked down a pile of papers on Matt's desk in her rage. He doesn't say anything about it though.

He did this to get to her. Or SHIELD. He just... he wants revenge, she knows it. He blames them killing Agent 33, just like he blames everyone else for every decision even though he's the one that put bullets in numerous people's heads!

"I'll kill him for this..." Skye growls.

Lincoln jumps in his seat. "Not while I'm around," he snarls back, though Skye ignores him.

Honestly, she should have made the vow after what he'd done to Bobbi... but this? After seeing what his...  _girlfriend_  had gone through and after thinking everyone else should be held responsible for his actions, he  _brainwashes_  a person?

_Asshole._

Matt walks up beside her. "Just take a breath," he advises. "I've tried revenge. It usually ends up hurting the avenger more."

Skye cocks a brow. "Yeah? Well I don't give a  _shit_.

_Knock Knock Knock._

Was that his door?

"Who the hell is coming over this late at night?" Skye demands, then realizes: well, anybody. She doesn't know Matt's life. Maybe he has booty calls every Thursday at one in the morning.

"I'm not sure," he says a little warily. "If they're knocking it's probably ok, but... try to keep  _him_ quiet."

Lincoln scoffs. "Sure, I'll be  _so_  quiet for my kidnappers."

Skye has the simultaneous urge to cry and punch him and flipping  _murder_  Ward.

" _Hydra_  kidnapped you, Lincoln. We're helping you, I swear."

"Yeah, that's exactly what this looks like. And stop calling me that name!"

"It's your name, Lin- _coln_ ," she says as she purposefully draws out the word," and I'm going to keep saying it until you remember something!"

"Skye..." Matt says, nearly at the door.

She sighs. "Just please keep quiet," she begs to Lincoln.

"Or what? You'll gag me?"

She purses her lips and looks up in thought, hands on hips. "Probably, yeah."

"Great, thanks," he snaps. " _Friend._ "

Matt's just about to look through the peephole when Skye hears a voice burst through it.

"I know you're in there Matthew Murdock!" says a woman's voice. "Don't try to ignore me, I can hear you. This is important!"

Skye shoots Matt a curious look she quickly realizes he can't see.

He sighs, puts a finger to his lips in signal for Skye to stay quiet, and cracks the door a bit.

"Hey Karen," he says. "Did you know it's the middle of the night, by any chance?"

"Oh hush," she says, trying to storm passed him, only for him to block her. She looks up in confusion and shock. "Matt! Let me in. We have to talk over these discrepancies I just found-"

"It's not a good time," he says shortly.

"Well considering your home, it's the middle of the night and you're up until three anyway, I don't see a better time."

He grunts with annoyance. "I have  _company_ , Karen."

She gets excited at that. All smiles and trying to sneak peaks in the door. "Ooh. Well don't let me interrupt. Except- ugh!" she groans. "Except... we really should talk-"

"Karen."

"Alright fine, enjoy your-"

"HEY! I need-"

Lincoln began to shout of nowhere, Skye hurriedly muffling his voice by shoving her arm into his mouth. She whispers, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," against his smothered protests.

"Is that a... guy?" the redhead asks.

To Matt's credit, he doesn't shift uncomfortably... or make any moves at all really.

"Yes."

"Oh. Ok! I'm not judging or anything, I just didn't know-"

Matt puts fingers to his head and huffs a breath of exasperation. "It's not that kind of company Karen."

"Oh perfect," she says, and though Skye knows Matt's perfectly capable of stopping her he doesn't, and she barges right passed him into the room.

Then stops. And stares.

I mean, Skye shoving her arm into a handcuffed guys' mouth who is actively trying to get away is  _probably_  a strange sight.

"Uh... hi," Skye says awkwardly.

"Hey Matt," Karen calls to him, without so much as glancing away from Lincoln and Skye, who has not taken her hand of said boy's mouth yet. She doesn't want him to freak out this girl anymore than she is already.

"Yes Karen?" he asks tentatively.

"What uh... what kind of  _company_ is this then?"

Matt doesn't say anything for a while and Skye tries to think of a lie to fill the gap.

Honestly? She's got nothing.

Karen doesn't wait for an answer and whips around, pulling Matt away as she harshly whispers. (Well, stage whispers. Skye can totally hear her.)

Maybe that's just an angry whisper.

"Matt... is this like some sort of... bondage threesome or-"

"Karen!"

"Well, what the hell am I supposed to think? Who are these people?"

"Alright. For starters, this is my friend from the orphanage, Skye, and her friend Lincoln."

Lincoln rustles his lips out of her grasp for a moment.

"I'm not her friend."

"Yes you are!" she immediately urges. She nearly puts her hand back in place but second guesses it. That's probably pissing him off something fierce.

"Explain," Karen demands of her friend. Possibly boyfriend. Or work associate. Hell if Skye knows.

Matt opens his mouth, but before anything comes out his whole body stills. Goes frigid.

He's listening.

"They're here."

"Oh finally..." Lincoln mumbles.

"Who's here? What is going on!" asks Karen.

"Lincoln... did you know they were coming?" Skye sounds betrayed, she's sure. Hell, who is she kidding? She feels betrayed. She knows she shouldn't be. And he may not have even known...

"Yep. It was the plan the whole time," he tells her with a smile. Smug.

She wants to cry again.

"I thought the plan was to kill me?" asks Matt.

"Well yeah, that too," explains Lincoln. "I was embedded with a tracker in case I failed a mission and SHIELD got me back. That way backup could step in and grab Skye."

Skye was in the middle of inspecting the incision on his arm when she glanced up at the sound her name. "Me?"

"Ward wants you alive."

"SHIELD?" Karen asks, turning to Skye. "You're SHIELD? Is this an interrogation? Matt!"

"Karen, you have to go."

"Why?" she demands.

"Matt," says Skye, "you can't let her out of your sight. Hydra  _will_  kill her."

"Ah... what do we do?" He leans in close. "She can't be here when they come."

"They're following a tracker on Lincoln. We'll stay here and you take her out... is there a fire escape?"

"Yeah."

"Fine. Do it."

"A fire escape?" Karen says in a panic. "Matt's blind! He-"

"I know it well," he says, cutting her off as he pulls her wrist. He turns to Skye. "I'll be back."

"Don't, it's too dangerous."

He laughs, like that's funny. "I'll be back."

She grins.

Though she doesn't feel light. The world is on her shoulders as she and her brainwashed friend wait for Hydra, while Matt the Daredevil leaves with his secret identity hopefully in tact. That girl clearly knew nothing about him.

Skye feels just a little more special.

When they blast through the doors Skye tries to take them out with plentiful surges bursting from her hands, but the agents are spread and come in one after the other.

Eventually, one or the other brings a large gun.

A large net flies out of the barrel and wraps around Skye along with a rope to hold it in place, pinning her arms and legs together like she's just stood at a frigid attention.

Then it shocks her.

Fire and ice rip through her veins and though she doesn't feel herself hit she's suddenly on the ground. It's the weapon they took out the Kree with, she realizes a few moments later.

Hey, it's harder when you're on the receiving end to tell what weapon you're dealing with.

She moans unwillingly, writhing on the ground from the jolts still coursing through her. Two men hull her up from firm grips on her shoulders.

Her head lolls forward as one man inspects her face. "This is Agent Skye?" he says, grabbing her by the chin and jerking her up, forcing his gaze into her drooping eyes.

A freshly unchained Lincoln nods. "That's who she said she was."

"Perfect," the uniformed agent says. "Ward wants her alive. Oh," he turns to Lincoln as he releases Skye's head. She can't help but drop it forward. Shit, she feels sick... "And your compliance will be rewarded."

Her friend smiles, pleased with the praise from a Hydra agent.

"L-Lincoln," she manages. Though her voice was frail and quiet, his head moves at the noise.

She catches concern in his eyes. Puzzlement and caring.

_Yes._

"Help me..." she begins to plead quietly, but the man cuts in front of them.

"Hey Charge," he says, and Skye sees the man lay a friendly hand on LIncoln's shoulder. "Let's go get that reward."

They begin to walk away and Skye tries to say something, anything, but instead finds her bound body lifted over a man's shoulder as the world spins on its axis twenty times too fast.

She's scared, because she has no idea what Ward wants with her. But it's not hard to figure out what she wants.  _Needs._

The Daredevil to come help them.

* * *

"Matt-"

"I know you want to understand what's going on Karen, but I just can't tell you. It's SHIELD business."

"Ok, let's start with that. When did you become involved with  _SHIELD_?"

"I wasn't lying when I said I knew Skye from the orphanage. I ran into her tonight and she was on a mission or whatever they call it, so I offered up my place."

Huh. So maybe he could tell her.

The whole conversation is going on as they hurriedly descend the fire escape and down the street, Matt trying to put as much distance between the apartment and Karen as he could.

"Well that was… stupid! You don't use the place you live for some kind of government torture session! I mean, what the hell Matt?"

"You've been saying that a lot tonight."

"I think it's warranted."

"Hey, when you needed help I helped you and now Skye needs help." Matt pauses. "I just said help a lot, didn't I?"

She shook her head in disbelief and scoffed. "You must have a death wish then."

"I'm just trying to do the right thing."

"What about Ben? He tried to do the right thing!"

Karen's sentence chokes off into a soft sob. Matt knows it's still hard for her to think about the friend they lost, not that he can blame her. It's terrible.

"And he made a difference," Matt says as they slow to a stop. "Now keep moving. Don't stop until you're in a more populated area."

"What? Where are you going?"

"I have to help Skye."

"Matt! She's a… secret agent and you are a  _blind man._  I don't think you'll do much good."

Matt feels annoyance stir up inside.  _If only she knew._

"I'm just going to get help. You start moving."

"No way!"

"Karen," he says in a stern no nonsense tone. "Go. No sense in both of us going back."

There is a pause, and Matt guesses that if he could see Karen she would be giving him a harsh look. Something to match her attitude.

"Fine," she says begrudgingly and starts stomping away.

The moment she is out of sight Matt starts too book it, dropping his cane off to the side where he makes a mental note to pick it up later. He puts on his hood. No time for the full suit now, but he made sure to grab that as he was walking Karen away. He'd done it subtly enough that he doesn't think Skye noticed, let alone his untrained friend.

There are large cars and more men than Matt could count on cursory observances if he had normal vision. (Of course he has advanced senses and he immediately is aware of exactly sixteen men that have stormed the building.)

He fleetingly hopes none of the building's other tenants were caught in the crossfire.

Lincoln waltzes out of the front door surrounded by the men. Guards, Hydra agents, whatever they are.

Coming down the stairs near the opening of his apartment, Matt senses one carrying something over his shoulder that's fairly large.

And alive.

Skye is barely holding on to consciousness judging by her breaths, and her body is forced in on itself as though she is wrapped in something.

They're carrying her like a netful of freshly caught fish.

They must be pretty confident too, because these people aren't hiding the obviously illegal happening at all.

"Get the enhanced to the chopper," says a man, directing the agent holding Skye as well as a man near Lincoln.

They look like old buddies, though.

Sixteen guys... he could probably take sixteen guys. But with  _Charge_  in the mix? Stacks the odds a little too well against him.

They've closed up the SUV with Lincoln, Skye, two men and a driver and begin to drive away before the others.

That... he can probably handle.

Luckily, they're heading his way. Matt quickly gains higher leverage from some dumpsters. Not exactly the best height he could have hoped for, but it's enough for him to make a daring leap and get on the top of the van.

"What was that?" he hears a man ask from the thud.

"Well, I don't know!" says another.

"Should we check it out?"

"Eh, we'll be there in five minutes."

Five minutes. Matt has to decide whether to attack a moving vehicle, or wait for them to stop and exit. There will most likely be more people to take down with option two.

Observing, he takes in the fact that three people are sitting and one is laying on the ground at their feet. It doesn't take him long to figure the odd one out is Skye.

Matt's on all fours crawling on the roof, forward until he gets to the front. He bends over and opens the passenger side door.

"What the-" says the driver.

Or, that's all the has time to say before Matt kicks his face in. The man slumps over immediately.

The car swerves dangerously.

Yeah… maybe not the best idea for a blind guy to drive.

Matt clambers on top of the man somewhat awkwardly, or it would be if the guy was awake. But he's not, so good there. More importantly he needs to focus on pulling the car over. There are horns beeping and he's sure he's already run a light or two, even though his radar can pick up where the other cars and pedestrians are.

"Hey, what's going on?" Shouts a man in the back.

Matt jerks the car to the side and to the stop, swinging into a park. He reaches the back door just as the Hydra agent is exiting.

"What the hell-"

_Wham!_

Damn. These Hydra agents really do not know how to take a punch. Another one goes down without so much as a retaliating blow, but Matt doesn't have much time to dwell or celebrate.

Electricity fries his body before he can think.

He's on the ground, panting hard as Lincoln steps forward in the van. Skye's still in there and trussed, having been hoisted up and now held close by the solely conscious agent.

"Lincoln," Matt pants. "You don't want to do this. I'm Skye's friend."

The kid hops out of the van and lands with a thud, a small laugh falling through his lips. "I don't know why you think I'd care," he says. "My orders are to take you out," he says, raising a hand.

He hesitates. He's nervous. Through whatever this brainwashing did, there's a spark of some sort of resilience in there.

"You've never killed anyone."

"Not yet," he says, pointing his hand hard at Matt,though nothing discharges from him yet.

Matt shakes his head. "You'll never come back from it."

"But Mr. Ward will be-"

"Ward is a  _bad_ guy! He has a girl tied up in there and is forcing you to  _murder_  people. You really think that's ok?"

"Shut up!" Lincoln shrieks, starting to frenzied. Frustrated.

He's unstable and unpredictable now.

"Charge!" shouts the agent. "Take your mark out! Compliance will be rewarded, or whatever…"

"No," Skye suddenly finds her voice, quiet but firm and ready to keep going. The man covers her mouth immediately, but she bites and he lets go with a yelp, dropping her. Still bound, she begins thrusting her feet at the agent by bending her knees in and out. In her current state it's no good though, and the agent stills her with a foot, bends down, and backhands her netted face hard enough to bruise in moments.

Matt feels a fire build up in him.

But... he also notices the same fury somewhere else.

In Lincoln.

Heart Rate rising and breathing hard, Lincoln suddenly charges at the guard. He doesn't use his electricity, he full on tackles him like a football player to remove the man from Skye. He punches once, then seems to remember he has abilities and grabs the guard's shoulder, shocking until he falls unconscious.

Lincoln stands, stunned, as Skye tries to get a better look at her fallen attacker through her vantage on the ground.

Considering Lincoln looks too in awe to do anything, Matt rushes forward and cuts Skye loose, the net falling to her sides and allowing her full range of her limbs once again. He aids her unsteady form until she's back on her feet, as, apparently whatever they'd done to subdue her still causing her weakness. Matt pulls one of Skye's arms over his shoulder and she complies with the gesture easily.

Lincoln's staring at his hands. "Why… why did I do that?" he asks.

"Because that's what you wanted to do," Skye explains. "Hydra didn't take away your emotions and ability to choose, they just smothered them. Deep down… you knew it was right to help us."

"I think… You do seem familiar..."

"Yes," Skye breathes, pulling away from Matt in excitement. "Yes! Just hold on to that. Please"

"I hate to break up the moment," Matt says. "But we're not out of the woods yet. There are a lot more guys."

"And they'll have our twenty at any moment," Skye says, prompting a raised eyebrow from Matt. She shrugs. "Field agent lingo."

He laughs. "I'm aware, I deal with law enforcement a lot, it just sounds funny coming from you."

She smiles. "Well that's good, because considering that Ward's in the mix… I think I have no choice but to call in SHIELD."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said Lincoln was kidnapped by Hydra and I needed something to convince Skye to try bringing in SHIELD again. Just putting Ward's name in there seemed the best way to do it (as well as extra angst for Skye!)
> 
> So one more short chapter. So sorry this took so long! If there is a character from SHIELD you'd like to see, let me know cause I'm probably gonna put one or two in there.


	6. Guardians

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye, Matt and Lincoln get extracted by SHIELD.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Previously: Lincoln had been brainwashed and captured by Ward's Hydra. Once Skye and Matt got him back, he didn't exactly like them... until a guard hurt Skye and Lincoln was able to see some of his real self shine through.

Skye's been chewing on her nails for a long time. Minutes, nearly an hour.

Lincoln is in the corner, shying away from them to the best of his ability. He holds his head in his hands and mumbles. Incoherent. Matt knows it's incoherent, because Matt can of course hear every vibration and strange small noise that comes passed his lips. They are not words.

Every once in a while Skye will walk over there, towards her friend, but he shrugs his shoulders and turns on his crate so that he's facing the polar opposite direction. This has to has happened at least three times, with their situation not advancing in the least, save for them waiting for this SHIELD team to arrive.

"You don't have to be here," Skye says, as though reading his thoughts. "In fact, you really shouldn't be here."

"I'm the one who picked out the building," he defends.

Skye blinks. "I mean… yay for being able to pick out the abandoned architecture in your own neck of the woods, but  _SHIELD_ is coming. If they see you… there's gonna be a lot of questions."

Matt smiles shyly, amusement creeping in. "You certainly are wary of them for being employed by them."

Skye's mouth pops open, ready to defend. Then it shuts. Matt notes that she does this a lot.  _Almost_ speaking before she thinks. But she catches herself.

"We're… disagreeing," Skye admits. She tugs her hair behind her ear. "I told you. Ever since the Inhuman outbreak, things have been different. I'm trying to lead a team that it seems  _no one_  wants to be a part of, while my boss is off canoodling with people who want to capture enhanced."

Matt cocks his head. "Your boss is with Hydra?"

"Um, no," Skye says, almost coyly. "Another group. Trust me, there's way more people out there than you'd think looking for gifteds."

"I'd actually assume quite a lot," he says. "People already use people as weapons… why wouldn't they go for those with the power built in?"

Skye nods, seeming impressed. "Nice wording."

"Thanks."

"Makes me think you're not quite ready to come out of the closet yet." She gestures up and down his body, though he wears normal clothes. "Well that and… the whole super suit hiding your identity thing."

Matt chuckles. "Nice observations," he compliments back at her, teasingly. "I feel like it would complicate things."

Skye scoffs. "Oh, it does. Trust me. When every other person wants your head for their trophy case…"

"I actually know what that's like. It's just that if my enemies knew my identity, I wouldn't have a secret base to hide behind."

"Ok, true. But you would if you… you know, joined my team?"

She asked it so hopefully, so desperately, that Matt almost hates to turn her down. But she is expecting his answer. All it takes is a sympathetic look for her to rescind the invite. (To be fair, he  _was_  planning to follow it up with a well thought-out declination.)

"Yeah, I feel ya. They need you here in New York City… but if aren't wanting to my roster,  _why are you still here_?"

"Skye, come in," Matt hears through a walkie.

She sighs, taking it out of her suit. "I hear you, May."

Lincoln's walked over at the sound of new voices, curiosity on his face. He also appears confused, upset… it's no wonder. His entire world's been turned upside down to the point that he can't trust so much as his own thoughts. His arms tightly wind his abdomen in clear nerves.

"We'll be touching down on the roof in a few moments," the woman responds. "You coming to us or are we coming to you?"

Skye turns questioningly to Matt, and he moves his hand invitingly to spur her on. She tilts her head slightly in confusion, but says decidedly into the device:

"You come here, first."

* * *

 

May and Morse nearly break down the old creaky doors coming inside, and Skye has this instinctive feeling to guard Lincoln. And Matt.

Honestly, after that stunt Coulson pulled with Lincoln and the ATCU when she was still recruiting him for the team… she really was  _wary_  of SHIELD.

"Agent Johnson," May greets, clearly all business as she eyes Skye up and down. Though, Skye is aware she was the one to call on the hostility by not going straight up to the helicopter.

"Drop the formality May," Skye snaps. She nudges her head towards the blonde. "You brought Bobbi. On a field op?" She tilts her head. "Trying to put the odds in your favor with Lincoln's fate? Could have brought Mack, you know, my  _partner_ when dealing with _gifteds_ , but-"

"Stop it, Skye," Bobbi intercedes. "Mack's busy with your responsibilities while you've been out here rogue. You know I'm cleared for low-level field missions, and if you would have just come to the plane like a normal extraction we wouldn't even have to be down here."

"You're right. You'd have Lincoln exactly where you want him… ready to lock him up."

"All we're asking is to take precautions," Bobbi explains. She eyes behind Skye towards the other Inhuman, clearly taking note of the third man. "Who's this?"

Skye hesitates a bit, because she's still not sure why Matt stuck around. Unless he wants his Daredevil status all over SHIELD servers that his, and Skye is pretty dang sure he does not.

So she tells the truth.

"My friend Matt."

"Your friend _Matt_?" May repeats snidely.

Damn. She's really pissed off.

Skye blinks rapidly, as though trying to take away the fury that's blinded her. She doesn't even glance at Matt to gauge his reaction. "Look I don't know what happened to you while you and Hunter were gone May, but it may interest both of you that Ward was the one to… hurt Lincoln."

They both soften their expressions.

"Yeah. So quick to condemn the corrupted, but here's Miss Bobbi Morse up and running after recovery from what  _Ward_  did to  _her._  Never saw her in a jail cell the past months, huh?"

"It's different, Skye!" May erupts. "Bobbi was never brainwashed!"

"But what was done to Lincoln happened lacking just as much consent as the torture  _she_  went through! They could have tortured him too! He deserves the benefit of the doubt." Skye stepped back, aligning herself physically with the two men that now flanked her. "And if you won't give it to us, I think we're better off trying our luck with Hydra than with you."

A silence was all that filled the air. Well that, plus some angry stares.

Which is why what broke the quiet was slightly odd.

"I think now is a good time for me to introduce myself," Matt said suddenly.

Skye turned to him in surprise. "Do you?" she asked flatly. "Do you really? Right now?"

"I do," he says, courtly extending a hand and Skye is forced to raise incredulous eyes. "Mathew Murdock, attorney at law."

May and Bobbi eye the hand like they've never performed the traditional greeting of a shake before. Like he's just started doing the hokey pokey, and is about to turn himself around.

Matt coughs. "I'm not entirely sure what's going on in front of me. Is anyone reaching?"

"Um, no," says Skye.

He pulls his hand back. "Alright then. Anyway, I'm here to represent Mr. Lincoln…"

(Skye's head does not stir out of place as she whispers, her lips barely moving, "Campbell")

"-Campbell. My client."

May arches an eyebrow. "A lawyer, Skye?"

"Old friend," she says, jumping on Matt's story. "Thought it would be a good idea to get some help."

"For a gifted?" Bobbi asked. "You shouldn't be calling attention-"

"The  _world_ is calling attention to us," Skye defended. "Every time a new Inhuman pops up the news is two steps behind them and five steps ahead of us. Giving Lincoln protection with the law was the only way I could be sure-"

"The president is the one who ordered the ATCU after them," says May.

Matt steps forward. "The problem lies within the fact that I've never heard of that organization," he says. "So I'm assuming whatever you're referring to is being kept under wraps, which means it's not recognizable in an official case. Thus far, there's no law that I know of that will condemn specials or brainwashed persons."

"No law that protects them, either," Bobbi points out.

"It could be attributed to mental illness, in fact," Matt supplies. "And there are a great deal of instances in which this could apply here."

"I'm not ill!" Lincoln suddenly exclaims, though Skye wishes he hadn't. Basically attempting to nullify what Matt was saying to defend him. "I'm… confused. I don't know who to trust, but I want to trust her," Lincoln says, gesturing to Skye. Her heart warms up, just a bit. "And I think she wants to trust you. I just need… help."

Bobbi scowls. "Sounds like exactly what Agent 33 said…"

So Skye scowls. "Well he's not agent 33. And unless you want to tell us that you gave him up to Hydra as well,  _Morse,_  than he's probably not going to try anything against you."

Ok, low blow. Low, low blow. But she really just wanted to get Lincoln onto that plane without handcuffs.

She wanted the agents to let themselves trust him in the future.

Glares and frowns are being thrown around the room and Skye nearly jumps when Matt places a gentle hand on her shoulder. He puts his lips near her ear.

"They've found us. I hear them outside."

Skye closes her eyes and shakes her head quickly as Matt backs away. "Hydra will be here soon," she mutters irritably. "Are you going to let us on to the plane, or not?"

Bobbi sighs. "Of course we are. We just wanted to get on the same page first."

Skye shrugs, shifting her eyes between Bobbi and May. "Guess that will have to wait."

* * *

 

The ride is awkward. Nearly no words are exchanged once they board the jet, save for Skye cautiously asking Lincoln how he is every now and again. He says 'fine' each time.

Matt doesn't believe he's all that fine. But what else is the kid going to say?

He notes Skye scanning him. Waiting. Practically begging for him to explain why he'd offered himself up as Lincoln's lawyer.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

He still did believe it was a good idea, in fact. But perhaps it was not Skye-like for her to have called in such a person, and there rooted the problem in her friends believing it.

After a few hours the plane touched down, but not to a base, city, or anything of the like.

A field.

Farmland, as far as Matt could tell.

Agent May walks away from the pilot's chair, Morse following close behind.

"Where are we?" asks Skye.

"Ohio," May answers. Skye seems to wait for an explanation, so she continues. "It's not as if we could go straight back with our passengers," she says pointedly, not bothering to hide the malice. Matt couldn't see her eyes move, but he had a good idea that he was being sized up.

"Ok, so what do you propose we do?" Skye asks. "I mean, thanks for the extraction but I am  _not_  going back unless Lincoln is by my side. And I can see you two aren't really up for that."

"You know we just want to take precautions," Bobbi says imploringly. Near pleading.

Skye told him of this. That they'd been burned by someone brainwashed in the past and would not want to help. It makes things even more difficult that Matt realizes it was this woman who had been on the receiving end of that misfortune.

"What, like a bag over his head?" Skye snaps.

Bobbi shrugs. "Maybe."

"What about his lawyer?" Agent May deadpans.

Matt steps forward. "My business can be done long-distance, if need be. Actually it may be preferred for the most part as I do live in New York. But there really won't be a need for me to come to your  _secret base_  at any point in time," he says, smiling, having put air quotes around the phrase.

May juts her chins to indicate Skye. "You told him?"

"I am fairly perceptive with context clues," Matt cuts in before Skye can answer. "And with me, there's no need for bags and blindfolds in any case."

"Well, as far as I can tell we've established that Mr. Murdock will need to get back to New York City," says Bobbi. "Do we want to turn around?"

"Hang on!" Skye shouts. "I want to figure out what's going on with Lincoln first. Because otherwise… you drop me off too. I'll hand over my badge."

"Skye-"

"I'm serious May! It isn't right!" Skye shook her head in upset. "He's already shining through without any medical help whatsoever, and you guys want to give up on him? He's been burned by Ward just as much as Bobbi," she says. "Why do you want to see Hydra win?"

"It's dangerous," May stresses.

"Yes because nothing in  _our_ lives is dangerous," Skye says, and Matt's majorly certain it's sarcasm. "I will be with him every step of the way," she proclaims.

Matt can hear Lincoln's thumping heartbeat as they discuss his fate. He wonders if his memories will return, if anything will ever be back to normal.

If he really  _could_  use a lawyer.

If gifted ever came out on a large-scale, there could be a new market for the law.

Lincoln suddenly coughs, walking forward. "I'll make sure to take any precautions you ask of me."

"Lincoln…" starts Skye, as though disappointed in him for not standing his ground.

"It's ok," he assures her. "I  _was_  trying to kill you a few hours ago. It would be strange if they weren't cautious. And if I'm out of control… I just don't want to hurt anyone."

Skye sucks in a breath and holds, but ultimately nods.

"It's settled then?" May asks.

"I guess so," Skye says, her salty attitude fading. She's still not happy though.

That Matt's sure of.

"Well then," Agent Morse starts. "Where to?"

* * *

"Getting away from me fast as a bat out of hell, eh?" Skye says and shrugs as they walk. They'd parked the jet somewhere slightly off the radar, but Skye still doesn't have long for the goodbye stroll.

He laughs, and she's glad he took it for a joke. "Well after you seemed to have mended fences with your teammates, though I might take advantage of the opportunity for a loop around."

"Why didn't you just leave in the first place?" she asks. Not that she isn't glad he stuck around. Honestly, She wishes he could come back to the Playground with them.

"I couldn't let you guys go without knowing there was a place you could hideout," he explained. "And I am serious about the lawyer thing, if you were to ever need one."

"Yeah?" she asks. "We may have to hit you up on that. The way things are going with this outbreak… it's not going to be much of a secret anymore."

"I was thinking of that. The laws that would change… they could even try to make everyone register their powers."

Skye scoffs. "Well that would be something." She appraises him. "You'd really be willing to help us out?"

"Well I may have my hands full, but I actually know a guys who's pretty good at what he does."

"Hmm… that wouldn't be Foggy, would it?" she asks curiously.

"We own a practice together," he tells her.

"Aw. Little Matt Murdock is all grown up."

"I think Mary-Sue Poots might be too. Though by the looks of it you didn't turn out to be a long-lost princess."

"No, definitely no royal blood. But I really doubt that tiaras and hoity toity parties are cooler than kicking ass with superpowers."

"I don't know," says Matt. "I look pretty good in a tiara."

The mental image gives Skye a pretty good chuckle. "And you know this how?"

"Hey, I can't tell you  _all_  my secrets."

"Right, of course," she says lightly, but a frown calls to her face as she takes in the reality of… well, everything. "You'll be careful, right? It's going to be harder keeping a secret identity with the way things are going."

"Don't worry, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

Skye scrutinizes him. "I can't tell if that was a joke or not…"

"It was a joke. I'm already as careful as I can be."

"I seriously doubt that, considering your moniker is  _daredevil_."

"Ok, so I'm as careful as I can afford to be," he says. "We have to take risks."

"You're right. So you won't mind if I do this."

Skye hugs him.

Tightly, like they've been best friends forever. They've known each other since they were kids, but best friends? Far from it. Collectively they'd spent a few days with one another.

Skye isn't sure if it was their shared secrets that had them so close without actually knowing each other well, but it's impossible to deny they have a bond. She thinks. She hopes, or it might be inappropriate to be hugging him right now.

But he returns the embrace until she breaks it off.

"You know, in case on of us dies." Her sentence comes out grimmer than she'd prefer. "But don't, ok?"

"Try my best."

"Thanks," Skye replies. "Til next time, I guess."

"Yeah, next time," Matt says.

 

He's happy it wasn't a goodbye.

As she leaves he wonders if there will be a next time. Whether it will be in this life or the next. He wonders all the things he doesn't know about her. If Skye ever turned to Christianity, if she has a boyfriend or if her team will come to actuality.

She's left a mark on him in her short instances of coming to be. She shaped who he is in more ways than one. Every time he'd seen her it felt like there was a larger purpose to the visit, and every visit was a coincidence. Matt doesn't think she's an angel, but right now she's the closest thing to a guardian he has. Showing up when he needs her. When she needs him.

Angel or no, he wouldn't be surprised to learn that God had been the one to send them to each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END. I'm sooo sorry guys. OVER THREE MONTHS. SHEESH. And it's not even a good ending but at least it's all done... Comment if you enjoyed please! Even if it's to tell me you enjoyed the other chaps but not so much this one xD


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